30 Minutes or Less

Welcome to another episode Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is 30 Minutes or Less.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

Written by Michael Dilberti.

Screen Story by Michael Dilberti & Matthew Sullivan.

Review #132

MPAA Rating: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, nudity and some violence.

Runtime: 83 min

Cast

Jesse Eisenberg ...Nick

Danny McBride ...Dwayne

Aziz Ansari ...Chet

Nick Swardson ...Travis

Dilshad Vadsaria ...Kate

Michael Peña ...Chango

Bianca Kajlich ...Juicy

Fred Ward ...The Major

Ruben Fleischer leaped on to the scene with the surprise hit Zombeland. That film took the VERY tired zombie movie genre and gave it a shot of life (no pun intended).  So I was pretty jazzed to hear he was behind the lens for this one.

My excitement was not duplicated at the end.


Plot 


Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and inform him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else... 


The plot seems simple enough but it's a few layers deeper and that's the biggest problem. There are too many subplots with characters that all intertwine. To put it bluntly, this film was a piss poor imitation of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch. Those films did a masterful job of combining so many character and plot arcs to form a cohesive story. 30 Minutes or Less deals with far less characters and stories and it still found a way to get too complicated and jumbled.

The end result was flat jokes.

The comedy was at many points very funny and entertaining but it was hard to get past the discombobulated mess that the overall story was trying to tell. It looked like some of the cast was trying too hard to get the jokes land when they should have just let their natural talents take over. The one that does this the best is hands down Aziz Ansari. He's mostly known for his recurring role as Tom Haverford on the very funny Parks and Recreation. He's basically playing Tom only with a little more nerves as opposed to the over the top self confidence that he displays on the show. He was the funniest character on the show and that's a shame with the rest of the cast in line.

Danny McBride has forgotten how to be funny. Instead he just channels his inner Kenny Powers and let's that run the show. He's dangerously falling into Will Ferrell territory and that's not a good thing. Will Ferrell has gotten by recently playing the same type of character in every movie. McBride is doing the same and it's getting old very very fast. Nick Swardson was just wasted here. This guy is really funny and here he was just a cartoon character. Lastly, Jesse Eisenberg who was exceptional in Zombieland was too straight laced here. His character was slacker-esque and yet he acted or sounded nothing like it. Smoking a joint isn't enough to sell me. His attitude was too stiff and his delivery was too sharp for his character. Or at least how his character was supposed to be I thought.

It's too bad really cause this could have been a pretty good buddy/heist comedy if it wasn't so complicated. The effort was clearly visible. The execution wasn't.

On the 5 star scale. 30 Minutes or Less gets 2.5 stars with a "Netflix It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is Conan the Barbarian.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"