Founded on the classic Andy Warhol dogma that in the future everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes, Robert Deniro and a younger Edward Burns star in this more than slightly over-contrived action thriller set in NYC. The whole movie comes at you over the top and director John Herzfeld puts too much emphasis on the bad guys (Karel Roden, Oleg Taktarov) and their desperation to become famous that it skews the dynamic of the film. However, watching it now I realize that, like it or lump it, the film wouldn't stand up very well had they gone for a mellow approach. With it's unneeded extra twists at the end it plays very much like a typical late-90's thriller but on steroids. Funny enough it was filmed in '99 but released in 2001, held back one year due to a never explained last minute studio decision.
DeNiro is nothing special here but still enjoyable, Burns is excellent and it's been great to see what he's done with his career since this came out, an accomplished indie film maker with some great rom-coms he's penned and a one-of-a-kind New Yorker presence in his acting roles. Since this movie is part cop buddy flick, I will also say the chemistry with Burns and DeNiro here works very nicely. The best performance in the movie is surprisingly by Kelsey Grammer who kills it as a ruthless reporter.
You know, there's a good movie down in here somewhere with nice insight into the whole 15 minutes of fame thing. Even as it is, it holds up well thanks mostly to the acting and fast pace. I'm glad I pulled it off the shelf, we'll take a look in another five years.. 3.0 stars/5
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