Rated
R (Crude and Sexual Content, Pervasive Language, Nudity and some Violence)
Running
Time: 1 Hour & 23 Minutes
Cast-
Jesse
Eisenberg-Nick
Aziz
Ansari-Chet
Danny
McBride-Dwayne
Nick
Swardson-Travis
Michael
Peña-Chango
Dilshad
Vadsaria-Kate
Bianca
Kajlich-Juicy
Fred
Ward-The Major/Dwayne’s Father
Directed
by Ruben Fleischer
 |
| Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari try their best but "30 Minutes or Less" fails to offer much laughs. |
Ever
since “The Hangover” became a critical and commercial success in 2009,
Hollywood has been churning out a whole slew of R-rated comedies, hoping to
strike lightning twice. Although the potential return of investment can either
be boom or bust, the production budgets are significantly cheaper compared to
visual effects-heavy spectacles, so the loss is generally minimal. “Bridesmaids,”
released back in May, was made on a mere production budget of $32.5 million but
has earned $257 million worldwide so far. Hoping to follow-up on his successful
debut with 2009’s “Zombieland,” Ruben Fleisher directs “30 Minutes or Less,”
the final R-rated comedy of summer 2011. While “30 Minutes or Less” benefits
from the manic, hyperactive chemistry of Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari, the
film is sloppily paced, its tone is wildly inconsistent, and the premise (loosely
based on the Brian Wells collar bomb incident) ultimately feels exploitative
and in poor taste.
Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a slacker living in Grand Rapids,
Michigan who works as a pizza delivery driver for Vito’s Pizza, which has a strict ’30 minutes or less’
policy—meaning if he fails to deliver the pizza in the allotted time, the cost
comes out of his salary. His best friend is Chet (Aziz Ansari), a former
substitute teacher upgraded to full-time. While watching “Die Hard” at Chet’s
apartment, the two friends get into a heated argument, revealing hurtful
secrets in an attempt to out-do the other. When Nick reveals that he slept with
Chet’s twin sister, Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria), on prom night, Chet becomes
horrified and kicks his friend out for deflowering his sibling. Meanwhile,
unemployed and dim-witted best
friends Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson) are fed up with living under the shadow of Dwayne’s father, nicknamed
'The Major' (Fred Ward). While receiving a lap dance from a stripper named
‘Juicy’ (Bianca Kajlich), Dwayne reveals that his father won $10 million while
playing the lottery in 1998 and has since been living a wealthy lifestyle. He
tells her that he cannot wait for him to die so he can get his hands on
whatever’s left but Juicy has a better idea: hire an ‘assassin’ and kill The
Major now. Travis quickly agrees to this, with Dwayne telling him that they
will open a tanning salon which is actually a front for a brothel once he gets
his hands on his father’s money. However, they need $100,000 to pay the
assassin to do the deed and concoct a variety of far-fetched schemes but upon
seeing an advertisement for Vito’s Pizza,
Dwayne decides to force the pizza delivery driver to rob a bank for them. When
Nick arrives at the address, which is a scrap-yard, a disguised Dwayne and
Travis ambush him. Nick wakes up the next morning to find a bomb full of C-4
strapped to his chest, with his two captors revealing that he has ten hours to
obtain $100,000 or else he will explode. A panic-stricken Nick barges into Chet’s
classroom and begs his friend to help him but find themselves way over their
heads once the assassin, Chango (Michael Peña), begins coming after them.
“30
Minutes or Less” bears a striking similarity to a strange 2003 bank heist gone
wrong, although the cast and crew claim to have no knowledge of the incident
while writers Michael Diliberti and Matthew Sullivan admit that they were
‘vaguely’ aware of it. The incident involved a forty-year-old pizza delivery man
living in Erie, Pennsylvania named Brian Douglas Wells who was forced to rob a
bank while wearing a collar bomb. The perpetrators were Marjorie
Diehl-Armstrong and Kenneth Barnes but it was later revealed that Wells was
also an accomplice. However, he was under the impression that the bomb was a
fake. Wells died when it exploded, blasting a fist-sized hole in his chest
which was broadcasted live on television. Whether or not the writers
intentionally based the film on the incident, the fact that this actually happened adds a certain morbidity
to the proceedings. Just last week, an eighteen-year old girl in Sydney, Australia
had a bomb strapped to her for ten hours before it was removed in an attempt to
extort her wealthy parents. Fortunately, the bomb turned out to be a fake. While
Wells may not have been a victim, to laugh at what he went through is just in
poor taste and the whole premise is simply depraved and exploitative. Think of
it this way, would you find it funny
if a bomb was strapped to your chest?
The film also suffers from a sloppy, frantic pace, as if the filmmakers were
embarrassed and couldn’t wait to get to the end credits. Certain elements like
Nick’s romance to Kate are quickly glossed over and feel contrived. An
outrageous high-speed chase occurs to enliven the picture but while it’s
competently put together, it lacks any real flair.
The only saving graces are
Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari, who provide a few laughs but not enough to
elevate the film above mediocrity. Both leads have a certain manic energy to
their behavior and their scenes are genuinely enjoyable thanks to the back-and-forth,
rapid-fire dialogue. Ansari steals every scene with his dry, wise-cracking wit
that recalls Tom Haverford (whom he also plays) from NBC's “Parks and Recreation.” The
same cannot be said for Danny McBride and Nick Swardson, who sprout ethnic
slurs and sexually-charged, profanity-laced euphemisms like thirteen-year-old
boys, all of it unfunny and annoyingly grating. The film asks us to emotionally
invest in their friendship but how can we when they come off as two selfish,
amoral douche-bags? I also found it hard to believe that Swardson’s Travis
would have the mental capacity to actually build a bomb. Although Michael Peña
has a relatively minor role, he makes the most of it as a lisping, Latino hit-man
named Chango. When Nick demands the code to disarm the bomb, he ends up
rattling off random codes such as the cheat code for Konami's classic video game Contra.
Released on August 12, 2011, “30
Minutes or Less” has received mixed reviews with 45% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics found it ‘sporadically funny and it benefits from a talented cast, but [the
film] suffers from a disjointed narrative, and too often mistakes crude gags
for true lowbrow humor.’ There wasn’t a huge turnout when I viewed the film as
the auditorium was only 30% filled but the audience seemed to enjoy the film.
Then again, the average American moviegoer isn’t exactly known to have very
discerning taste. Richard Corliss of TIME
magazine recounts an ironic anecdote of angry customers demanding their
money back after seeing Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” because the
‘seventeen-minute segment encapsulating the history of the cosmos in glorious,
often abstract imagery…baffled and…angered [them].’ However, if it ‘had
contained explicit violence or gross sexuality or obscene language or a
Neanderthal view of women, few patrons would have dared ask for a refund.’ Box
office wise, the film has earned a weak $4.85 million on track for an opening
weekend debut of $10 million. Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari manage to wring a
few laughs but the dark premise of “30 Minutes or Less” just isn’t as funny as
the writers would have you believe, and the film flies by so fast that you’ll
have trouble recalling anything. Roger Ebert concludes that ‘if you occupy the
demographic that this film is aimed at, Hollywood doesn't have a very high
opinion of you.’ Have they ever?
Final
Rating: 2 out of 5
“Guess
what?! You just brought a gun to a bomb-fight, officer!”
Note:
If you haven't bolted out the door already, there is a post-credits scene that
provides closure to a number of characters.
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