Nick is a small town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wanna-be criminal masterminds. The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet. As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers, and their own tumultuous relationship.
Genres: Comedy and Crime/Gangster Running Time: 1 hr. 23 min. Release Date: August 12th, 2011 (wide) MPAA Rating: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, nudity and some violence. Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
Cast And Credits
Starring:
Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria
Directed by:
Ruben Fleischer
Produced by:
Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld, Jeremy Kramer
The director Ruben Fleischer can handle actors and action well enough, but to judge from the frantically unfunny caper comedy “30 Minutes or Less,†he (or his advisers) doesn’t know his B material from his Z. Having scored with his 2009 breakout monster flick, “Zombieland,†Mr. Fleischer will next take on “ The Gangster Squad,†about Los Angeles detectives up against East Coast mobsters in the 1940s. Here’s hoping that the rest of the brain trust behind “30 Minutes or Less†will be wreaking havoc elsewhere.
Written by Michael Diliberti from a story he coughed up with Matthew Sullivan, the movie turns on Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), a pizza delivery guy who’s taken hostage, armed with a bomb vest and forced to rob a bank by a pair of chuckleheads, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson). Although Mr. Eisenberg radiates natural intelligence even when his motor mouth is running on empty dialogue, his character is a grade-A moron. Instead of going to the police or anyone with half a brain, he taps his belligerent closest friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari), for support, mostly because the simple, schematic script dictates that, like Dwayne, Nick needs a sidekick for his dumb and dumber routine.
Dwayne, an overage slacker who scarcely seems housebroken, lives with his father, an ex-Marine called the Major (Fred Ward), in a McMansion in Grand Rapids, Mich. Dwayne spends all his time with his dimwit foil, Travis, a mustachioed pet rock with a skill set that involves flamethrowers. One day Dwayne decides to hire a contract killer to secure his premature inheritance after a close encounter with a pair of naked breasts. These belong to Juicy (Bianca Kajlich), a stripper who, while parked on Dwayne’s lap, takes off her top and starts fondling herself. As Dwayne stares at the gyrating mammaries, he begins chattering about his father’s dough, inspiring her to suggest that he kill the Major.
It would be nice to believe that the filmmakers were connecting Dwayne’s aggressive infantilism to his gaga (goo-goo) response to the breasts and his murderous Oedipal impulses. But sometimes a woman who’s been directed to take her top off in a movie is just another exploited actress. And sometimes a rude and crude comedy is simply scraping the bottom of the barrel, despite the efforts of a talent like Mr. Eisenberg and of second bananas like Mr. Ansari and Mr. Swardson. Mr. McBride, on the other hand, is fast wearing out his welcome with a character type who, with a deep-fried accent and a pudd’nhead, could be called the cretinous cracker. It’s a shtick that helps makes the title of “30 Minutes or Less†sound like a cruel promise.
The director Ruben Fleischer can handle actors and action well enough, but to judge from the frantically unfunny caper comedy “30 Minutes or Less,†he (or his advisers) doesn’t know his B material from his Z. Having scored with his 2009 breakout monster flick, “Zombieland,†Mr. Fleischer will next take on “ The Gangster Squad,†about Los Angeles detectives up against East Coast mobsters in the 1940s. Here’s hoping that the rest of the brain trust behind “30 Minutes or Less†will be wreaking havoc elsewhere.
Dwayne, an overage slacker who scarcely seems housebroken, lives with his father, an ex-Marine called the Major (Fred Ward), in a McMansion in Grand Rapids, Mich. Dwayne spends all his time with his dimwit foil, Travis, a mustachioed pet rock with a skill set that involves flamethrowers. One day Dwayne decides to hire a contract killer to secure his premature inheritance after a close encounter with a pair of naked breasts. These belong to Juicy (Bianca Kajlich), a stripper who, while parked on Dwayne’s lap, takes off her top and starts fondling herself. As Dwayne stares at the gyrating mammaries, he begins chattering about his father’s dough, inspiring her to suggest that he kill the Major. 
If you tune out the dialogue, which is packed with raunch that has neither rhyme nor story reason, there are passable moments. The interludes of Nick shifting gears as he tries to beat the clock on another pizza run are nicely managed and say something about a character whose talent behind the wheel is a kind of grace note. Far less interesting are the parallel scenes of Dwayne and Travis conspiring in their little world and those with Nick and Chet swinging at each other in theirs. As one of the few women aboard, Dilshad Vadsaria provides the usual narrative and decorative female function as Nick’s romantic interest, while the always welcome Michael Peña, as a tattooed killer, almost subverts yet another deployed cliché.
