Hopes were high for “30 Minutes or Less,” with Jesse Eisenberg coming off a strong performance in “The Social Network” and him reteaming with “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer. But unfortunately the duo’s second outing doesn’t deliver. Ha, I made a funny.
Eisenberg's Nick is a pizza-delivery slacker with no idea what he wants to do with his life. One fateful night on a delivery, Nick is jumped by two aspiring, less-than-adept criminals and forced to rob a bank. With only nine hours before the bomb strapped to his chest explodes, Nick enlists the help of his schoolteacher friend (Aziz Ansari) to rob the bank and save his life. Unfortunately, not everything is as simple as delivering a pizza.
With a plot as crazy as this and a normally hilarious cast composed of Eisenberg, Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, “30 Minutes of Less’ should be a laugh-a-minute joyride that tickles your funny bone. Alas, the movie falls very much short.
Eisenberg and Ansari are definitely the strongest characters in the movie. Eisenberg has perfected playing the nervous nerd turned hero, sort of. Nick is exactly what you would imagine the offspring of Eisenberg's and Woody Harrelson’s “Zombieland” characters would be. He is crass, witty and always sweaty. McBride is probably the biggest shortcoming on the acting side. He can normally hold his own with anyone but apparently he left his A-game at home this time around.
The biggest fault of the movie has to be put on the writers. “30 Minutes or Less” felt like the running time should have been just that. With the way the movie dragged on, it felt that a film student could’ve made a hilarious short film and gotten the same point across. Maybe Michael Diliberti found the concept written on a napkin in an old college textbook one day and thought it would be a great idea to revisit. The concept itself is crazy enough to work, but Diliberti just couldn’t get everything going well enough to keep viewers entertained.
Ironically, the title is more representative of the special features given to the DVD release. A few deleted scenes are thrown in, accompanied by some outtakes and a short featurette.
“30 Minutes or Less” isn’t as awful as I probably have made it out to be. There are some classic lines that will most likely make this movie funnier to quote than it is to watch.
Film: 2 Yaps Extras: 2 Yaps