15 Minutes is a 2001 American satirical buddy cop action thriller film directed and written by John Herzfeld and starring Robert De Niro and Edward Burns.

Its story revolves around a homicide detective (De Niro) and a fire marshal (Burns) who join forces to apprehend a pair of Eastern European murderers (Karel Roden and Oleg Taktarov) videotaping their crimes in order to become rich and famous.

Ex-convicts Emil Slovak and Oleg Razgul arrive in the United States to claim their part of a bank heist in eastern Europe.

Also at the scene is Eddie Flemming, a high-profile detective who is followed by his girlfriend Nicolette Karas, a reporter from the tabloid TV show Top Story.

In the ensuing foot chase, Flemming's regular partner Leon Jackson is hit with a glass bottle and his wallet and gun are stolen.

Emil sells the tape of Flemming's murder to Top Story anchor Robert Hawkins in exchange for $1 million, outraging Warsaw and the entire police force.

While Cutler is leading Emil away out of court to be transferred to a mental institution, Warsaw provokes an argument, with the Top Story crew recording the whole thing.

The site's consensus reads, "As critical as it is about sensationalism in the media, 15 Minutes itself indulges in lurid violence, and its satire is too heavy-handed to be effective.

Ebert felt "It doesn't have the polish of "Natural Born Killers" or the wit of "Wag the Dog," but it's a real movie, rough edges and all, and not another link from the sausage factory.

"[7] On the negative side, Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post wrote: For a while, as long as it's cops vs. scum, "15 Minutes" bangs along pretty spectacularly.

The contrived script gets Brooks out of the picture fast, so that De Niro and Burns can have a nice male bonding moment or two, if that's the sort of thing that brings tears to your eyes.

But like oh-so-many movies in today's film culture, where nobody ever met a story he could tell, this one becomes so jammed up with subplots it seems to run out of room, space and time.