30 Minutes or Less (2011)
Certified: 16
Duration: 83 minutes
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Michael Peña, Fred Ward, Dilshad Vadsaria, Bianca Kajlich
KRS release
In 2003 Brian Douglas Wells was a pizza delivery man who died after having a bomb tied to his neck, having taken part in a botched bank robbery. It later resulted that he was in on this bizarre and very confusing crime and was not a victim. The authors of this film declare they were only vaguely aware of this incident which bears an uncanny resemblance to the film’s basic premise.
30 Minutes or Less has laugh-out-loud moments, is truly weird at times, plain silly in some sequences and at other times, is plain confusing. What I was left with was the utter wackiness of it all.
Jesse Eiseneberg once again plays an average guy – the only time he did not play average was when he took on the mantle of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
As Nick he hangs out with friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) who is a teacher, secretly sees his sister Kate (Dishad Vadsaria) and works as delivery pizza boy. He is always working against deadlines – pizza has to be delivered in 30 minutes or less.
Now he has a new deadline: He has 10 hours to rob a bank and get $100,000. Or else, he will be blown sky high by a bomb that is strapped to him by Dwayne (Danny McBride) and his not-too-intelligent best buddy, Travis (Nic Swardson).
Dwayne is on good terms with his father, The Major (Fred Ward), an ex-Marine who happens to be a lottery winner. A stripper that Dwayne frequents, called Juicy (Bianca Kajich), suggests to him to get a hitman in the form of Chango (Michael Peña), and kill his father to inherit his money. The hit costs $100,000. Meanwhile, Nick and Chet are on a race to carry out the robbery and deliver the money on time before the bomb explodes!
Mr Eisenberg brings the lazy, disinterested on-screen loafer routine down to an art. Aziz Ansari, who is supposed to play his sidekick, is chest-burstingly funny as he turns the tables on the rest of the cast.
The film appears to be living up to its title as halfway through, it seems to be all in a hurry to get things over, and left me with a feeling that the ending may be a bit of a rushed job. The film does have moments of genuine laughter but at times the Danny McBride and Nick Swardson team-up is a bit awkward to watch.
As regards Mr McBride, it’s either you like him or you don’t and this time around he definitely fell into the obnoxious and on-my-nerves category. Mr Swardson, meanwhile, is too empty a vehicle to really leave a mark.
The moments when the violence and danger take a realistic edge work against the film. In fact, this picture works best when Mr Fleischer lets the farce take over everything else.
The soundtrack features some nifty tunes from the likes of The Hives and Glenn Frey which add an element of 1980s retro and coolness to the film. By the end, while I laughed through parts of the film, I could never really say that I liked it or its characters. It is too uneven and sporadic for my liking.