30 Minutes or Less

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Writer: Michael Dilliberti
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari
Release Date: August 12, 2011
Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

       Two of the most popular guys in comedy, from completely different comedic backgrounds, combine their talented forces for a film with the stupidest premise of all time. That doesn’t necessarily mean not entertaining, though. The usually awkward geeky Jesse Eisenberg, who has risen from his theatre career to star in films like Adventureland and The Social Network, which he was nominated for an Oscar for, in 30 Minutes or Less, plays Nick, a pathetic pothead working as a pizza delivery guy. Aziz Ansari started out with stand-up, then made his way into I Love You, Man and Funny People with small roles and is now currently starring on NBC’s best comedy Parks and Recreation with Amy Poehler. In 30 Minutes or Less, he plays Chet, a kind but weak schoolteacher who has been friends with Nick forever.

       On his last pizza run for the day, Nick is taken hostage by two idiots wearing animal masks to disguise themselves, who chlorophyll him so they can strap a bomb vest onto him. When Nick wakes up, he is told that he has 10 hours to rob a bank and give them the money or they’ll blow him up. These two idiots are Dwayne (played by Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson), unemployed loafers that are only good at making bombs and living off of Dwayne’s rich dad, The Major (Fred Ward). Dwayne and Travis want $5000 stolen for them so they can pay a professional assassin to kill The Major so that Dwayne can come into his inheritance. Now, it is up to Nick and Chet to somehow rob a bank without any real weapons or experience and get the money back to the guys in the masks without any problems or getting arrested.

       Director Ruben Fleischer’s first feature Zombieland (also starring Esisenberg) was a cult hit, a hilarious futuristic tale about four drifters who become friends in a world overtaken by the living dead. Making an original off-the-wall hysterical film, Fleischer looked like the next best thing. Unfortunately the only good thing Zombieland and 30 Minutes Or Less has in common is Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role because most of the movie is simply a waste of time. With Eisenberg and Ansari in the lead roles, you are absolutely guaranteed laughs, especially in the extreme fish out of water scenes. The idea that these two losers must now behave as bad-asses is funny until it becomes repetitive, but the improv and bromantic chemistry between the two leads is enough to keep you from being bored.

       The other rewarding aspect of the film is that both actors are playing the opposite roles we have seen them in, in the past. Eisenberg, who usually plays a shy sweetheart, is a crude douche, while Anzari, who we know best for his arrogantly annoying role as Tom on Parks and Rec., plays a nice schoolteacher. Nick Swardson and Danny McBride are clearly very funny comedians but their character’s story is even more ridiculous and you become apathetic to anything having to do with them.

       First time screenwriter Michael Dilliberti delivers a slightly entertaining but completely unrewarding script. It’s common now that comedies will have absurd plots, but if they are funny enough, we can buy into them, i.e. The Hangover. However, the movie has to first be funny enough to keep you invested in the story. Secondly, it cannot build on the absurdity throughout the plot and especially at the end otherwise full credibility of the film goes out the window. That's what makes you feel gypped at the end of 30 Minutes Or Less. Sure, you laugh a lot in certain scenes, but when the credits roll at the end of the eighty-minute film, you can’t help but think, “That’s it?”. You could have spent that much time on YouTube, laughing ten times harder wtaching Ansari's standup and saving fifteen bucks. Dilliberti fails to deliver any substance or character development to the story and instead makes it strictly about the comedy.

       After the first ten minutes of the film, the full plot literally goes as follows: they find out they have to rob the bank, the plan how to rob the bank, they rob it, they deliver it, with a minute of a romance for Eisenberg as the only sub-plot. I love seeing both Eisenberg and Ansari on screen but not in this light. Hopefully the film is only a speed bump in their rising careers, as for Fleischer, the same cannot easily be said. It is a major step down from his hugely successful Zombieland, but maybe he can collaborate with a better or more experienced screenwriter for his next comedy. Not knowing of anyone who is dying to see this disaster, I don’t think it will be hard in advising people to stay away from 30 Minutes or Less. It’s kind of a no brainer.