The problem with “30 Minutes or Less” is that it clocks in at a mere 83 minutes, but run like the length of a two and a half hour movie. It’s so thinly-plotted that it does not take much time to establish the story, characters and conflict — and once it does, everything else seems like it is just trying to fill up time. The screenplay pulls its story and characters in several different directions that, at times, “30 Minutes or Less” feels like it is trying to keep up with itself, which is never fun for audiences to have to endure.
Jesse Eisenberg stars as Nick. Nick is a pizza delivery boy for a pizzeria which promises delivery in 30 minutes or less (hence the title). Nick has very little lust for life and almost no ambition. He hates his job, but he does it to get by and that is good enough for him.
He is also on the outs with his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) because Nick confesses to have once slept with Chet’s sister, Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria). They go their separate ways for a little while, but the movie quickly brings them back together when Nick is in desperate need for help.
Nick is place in quite a predicament when he encounters Dwayne and Travis (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson), two guys who seem to have less ambition that Nick. Dwayne still lives with his father (Fred Ward) who won millions of dollars with the lottery.
Dwayne and his father do not see eye to eye and Dwayne wants him out of the picture so he can collect on his inheritance. He is given the idea to have his father killed, but in order for that to happen Dwayne and Travis must come up with $100,000 to pay a hit man named Chango (Michael Pena). They devise a plan to rob a bank, but they are certainly far too lazy to do it themselves.
Nick and Travis’ brilliant scheme is to order a pizza from Nick’s pizzeria and kidnap the delivery boy, strap a bomb to his chest and force him to rob the bank.
With Nick’s bad luck, he is the delivery boy who is forced to wear the bomb until he can produce $100,000. Panicked, as most would be, he immediately goes to the school that Chet substitute teaches at and seeks his advice. Somehow, Nick is able to convince Chet to help him rob the bank.
The problem with “30 Minutes or Less” is that it clocks in at a mere 83 minutes, but run like the length of a two and a half hour movie. It’s so thinly-plotted that it does not take much time to establish the story, characters and conflict — and once it does, everything else seems like it is just trying to fill up time. The screenplay pulls its story and characters in several different directions that, at times, “30 Minutes or Less” feels like it is trying to keep up with itself, which is never fun for audiences to have to endure.
Jesse Eisenberg stars as Nick. Nick is a pizza delivery boy for a pizzeria which promises delivery in 30 minutes or less (hence the title). Nick has very little lust for life and almost no ambition. He hates his job, but he does it to get by and that is good enough for him.
He is also on the outs with his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) because Nick confesses to have once slept with Chet’s sister, Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria). They go their separate ways for a little while, but the movie quickly brings them back together when Nick is in desperate need for help.
Nick is place in quite a predicament when he encounters Dwayne and Travis (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson), two guys who seem to have less ambition that Nick. Dwayne still lives with his father (Fred Ward) who won millions of dollars with the lottery.
Dwayne and his father do not see eye to eye and Dwayne wants him out of the picture so he can collect on his inheritance. He is given the idea to have his father killed, but in order for that to happen Dwayne and Travis must come up with $100,000 to pay a hit man named Chango (Michael Pena). They devise a plan to rob a bank, but they are certainly far too lazy to do it themselves.
Nick and Travis’ brilliant scheme is to order a pizza from Nick’s pizzeria and kidnap the delivery boy, strap a bomb to his chest and force him to rob the bank.
With Nick’s bad luck, he is the delivery boy who is forced to wear the bomb until he can produce $100,000. Panicked, as most would be, he immediately goes to the school that Chet substitute teaches at and seeks his advice. Somehow, Nick is able to convince Chet to help him rob the bank.
“30 Minutes or Less” has an admirably manic energy to it, but is far too unevenly paced to be enjoyable. The story is pretty simple and it feels like the movie is completed within the first 30 minutes (or less) and then the rest of the film is drawn out until it just ends. There are laughs in the film but they are too few and far between.
Eisenberg proved to be a tremendous actor last year with his Oscar nominated turn in “The Social Network,” but “30 Minutes or Less” seems to be a bit of a step backward for him. He had mastered awkward and socially inept character in the previous film, but Nick is just, well, dumb. Eisenberg has shown us that he is too good of an actor to have played this role. Aziz Ansari steals a few big laughs as Chet, breathing some hyper energy into this film.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer, who directed one of 2009’s best movies (“Zombieland”), gets almost everything wrong that he got right with “Zombieland.” Zombieland was over the top, but wickedly funny and sharply paced (with the same runtime as this film). Here the story is weak, the laughs are inconsistent and the performers are almost universally lifeless. Though it looked like another promising comedy, “30 Minutes or Less” does not deliver.
