15 Minutes suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a cop thriller, a spoof, a satire, what? Sometimes a movie can be successful at pursuing normally divergent goals, but 15 Minutes gets in its own way by trying to establish conflicting tones, particularly in its use of extreme violence. Although the film is about violence and the sensationalism of violence in the media, one wonders if it undermines its own point. Still, Robert De Niro's performance -- a familiar role for him and yet reinvented at the same time -- is enough to make this fun to watch.