My best friend of the south recently pointed out the grammatical error of this film's title, it should in fact be 30 Minutes Or Fewer. But as the title is taken from a pizza commercial in the film I don't think we can berate them too much for their lack of grammar. In fact, it's likely to be a reference on how youths today have no grasp of the english language and end up working in pizza places as a result. Or that could be me reading too much into it.
Either way, let's get on with proceedings. 30 Minutes Or Less is story of how a pizza delivery boy, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), gets himself kidnapped and a bomb strapped to him. He is ordered to rob a bank by his kidnappers and told that if he doesn't get them $100,000 in 10 hours, he'll blow up. He can't go to the cops as they'll be watching him closely, so he enlists the help of his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) and the two of them come up with a plan to get the money.
30 Minutes Or Less was directed by Ruben Fleischer who also directed Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland, which was in my opinion one of the best films of 2009. And possibly Eisenberg's best performance to date. Forget about The Social Network, he was perfectly cast as the nervous geek opposite Woody Harrelson's tough nut and the two of them had great chemistry together. Fleischer hasn't quite managed to reach the heady heights of Zombieland here, but he has pulled off an above average comedy with another good performance from Eisenberg as the likable pizza boy who just wants to have things go his way for once. The teaming of Eisenberg with Ansari creates a believable friendship and some of the films funnier scenes are borne out of their banter.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Danny McBride's character Dwayne and his sidekick Travis played by Nick Swardson. Their friendship in comparison feels much more uneven as Travis is basically bullied into doing whatever Dwayne asks of him. Their conversations don't flow as easily as those of the good guys and seem a lot more dumbed down, I think to put across that they're not the sharpest tools in the box, but the end result leaves their scenes feeling a little flat.
Someone I did enjoy seeing in this movie is Fred Ward. An underrated and underused comic actor who should be doing more high profile movies. He puts in a small but great performance (as ever) as Dwayne's disapproving father, The Major.
To be honest, there's not a lot else to say about 30 Minutes Or Less. If you're looking for a genuinely funny comedy that will make you laugh, this is definitely the best of the comedies out at the moment. 7.5 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 21st September 2011
UK Release Date - 16th September 2011
Cast Overview:
Jesse Eisenberg ~ Nick
Danny McBride ~ Dwayne
Aziz Ansari ~ Chet
Nick Swardson ~ Travis
Dilshad Vadsaria ~ Kate
Michael Pena ~ Chango
Bianca Kajlich ~ Juicy
Fred Ward ~ The Major
Director ~ Ruben Fleischer
Writer(s) ~ Michael Diliberti (Screenplay and Story) and Matthew Sullivan (Story)
