Review - 30 Minutes or Less

This Delivery Doesn’t Truly Satisfy

So you need some money? You want to start up your dream business? Forget bank loans, investors and the like; you need to rob a bank. But of course, you don’t want to get your fingers dirty, so why not find someone to do it for you.

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a pizza delivery guy. He can drive fast, gets to live the slacker lifestyle, and work on his terms. One night he delivers some pizzas to Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson). Only upon arrival, they are wearing monkey masks and knock him out. Nick will become their bank robber.

As Nick awakens, he finds a bomb strapped to his person and gets the orders to go rob a bank and bring the two monkeys the money or face the consequences. Nick starts on his mission and gets his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) to come along. The two aren’t bank robbers, and it shows.

Now will Dwayne get his money, or will everyone get blown to smithereens.

In general, this should be a funny premise, in a dark comedy kind of way. But instead, this movie that clocks in at about 83 minutes feels long and tedious.

There is great acting talent here the feels wasted. Eisenberg works and is good as the crazy pizza delivery guy that just doesn’t know what to do. McBride just swears a lot, something he’s good at, but seems a bit scripted out of being a much deeper character that has meaning.

Most of the film seemed very uneven and suffering from a lack of plot direction. One minute it wanted to be funny, and it usually succeeded. But when it went off the rails and tried the serious tact on things, it felt like it was stuck in a pair of cement shoes.

Maybe it was my expectations for the film; I’m a big fan of all that are involved with this film. But 30 Minutes or Less takes about 30 minutes too long to get less laughs than one would imagine with the talent involved. Sure I’ll watch it again as it goes through the film lifecycle, because I did laugh, but overall it’s a bit like cold pizza it addresses the hunger, but doesn’t truly satisfy.

B- / C+

30 Minutes or Less

Columbia Pictures

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson

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

Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes