30 Minutes Or Less is a fast paced, no time to waste, movie about a pizza boy, a teacher and a bank robbery. I realize that sounds like a mesh of ideas pulled out of a hat to make a movie but it ends up working pretty well. Within the first ten minutes of the movie, you realize one fact; this movie will not waste any time on back story or character development. At least not till the end.
A brief warning that this article may contain SPOILERS!
Jesse Eisenburg plays a pot head pizza boy who has lost all expectations out of life. He is perfectly content with working a dead end job and shamefully trying to get into his best friends sisters pants. Played by Greek Alum, Dilshad Vadsaria. Aziz Ansari plays a school teacher and that best friend I was talking about. Which reminds me of a joke from his stand-up about child molesters at ‘Walking With Dinosaurs.’ I love everything Aziz has been in and I can say with confidence that he was my initial reason for seeing this movie. What surprises me about Aziz Ansari is that he hasn’t been type-casted. He continues to play different roles in his movies. Regardless of the fact that they are all comedy’s so far.
Eisenburgs Character is kidnapped by some low-level desperate idiots on his last pizza run for the night. Danny McBride plays idiot number one who is sub-consciously pining for his veteran fathers approval. He decides that forcing someone else to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to their chest is a much safer way of getting the job done. Nick Swardson plays idiot number two…or lacky, I suppose. He was pretty much McBrides sidekick in the movie but as far as lines, Swardson stole the show. He is the more consciously aware one because he actually feels a small amount of guilt for what they are doing. I have been watching Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time (On Netflix) and it has been nothing short of magical. His certain style of funny is played very well in this movie and I found myself wanting more of him than even Danny McBride.
Most of the movie is spent with Eisenburg and Ansari as they try and find a way to either dispose of the bomb attached to the pizza boys chest or rob a bank to please his captors. As expected, hilarity ensues. There’s just something about a fat cop running scared that gets me every time. The only thing that confused me was why they didn’t just call the cops. It’s not like they don’t have procedures for when someone is told NOT to go to the cops. They could have easily had the police meet them in the bank undercover and disarm the bomb. Sometimes I catch myself making these kinds of rationalizations and have to remind myself that this is a movie.
At one point I realize there has been little to no back story on these characters. Surprisingly, it felt refreshing to not have to force yourself to care about them too much in such a short time. The director, Ruben Fleischers, did something similar in Zombieland. He has the audience enjoy a brief adventure where the main character learns a lesson in the end and we don’t need extra background to understand it.
http://youtu.be/nn9DoxS_nck
The movie was only around an hour and fifteen minutes but it had enough one liners to keep us quoting for weeks. Bouncing from duo to duo with back and fourth banter that keeps you legitimately entertained but the entire cast was pretty much unstoppable. Do I think you should go see this movie? Yes! Sometimes, you just don’t care where the main character went to college or if his parents were divorced. You just want to be thrown into the thick of things and laugh your ass off. This movie definitely delivers.
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