[Movie Review] 30 minutes or less

“Guess what? You just brought a gun to a bombfight, officer!”
Do not tip your driver after seeing this movie.

After enjoying Zombieland, I decided to give 30 minutes or less a try. Even with a few good scenes, laughs, I am glad I used a free pass for this movie.
30 minutes or less should chronicle the life and times of a Hollywood cliché: The man-child.
In one corner is Jesse Eisenberg; he plays Nick, a pizza deliveryman. Nick has been stuck in a rut of delivery pizzas at high speeds in his POS Mustang, pining after his best friend’s twin sister, Kate played by Dilshad Vadsaria, getting drunk, playing Xbox and should have moved on to bigger things like Kate is about to.
In the other corner is Danny McBride. He has been playing Danny McBride since Tropic Thunder and while he was a good choice in Your Highness in 30 minutes or less, he actually slows down this one hour and twenty-three minute comedy. Danny is surrounded by wealth due to his father, The Major’s lotto winnings. Fred Ward plays The Major and besides a lovely scene with one of the secondary characters this is an entirely thankless role.
Danny spouts about how he has several great ideas but actually comes up with a great plan while at a strip club: Let us kill dad and take the winnings. This could have turned into a great Strangers on a Train moment, the problem is ninety-nine percent of the audience doesn’t even remember Strangers on a Train. The stripper, Juicy played by Bianca Kajlich gets her pimp involved to do the deed for a large amount of money that Danny does not have.
Danny and Travis, his co-hort played by Nick Swardson have enough at their disposal to build homemade IEDs and kidnap Nick on his last run of the night and strap a bomb to his chest and tell him if he doesn’t rob a bank in twelve hours he goes boom.
Nick’s best friend, Chet played by Aziz Ansari is moving forward in his life as a full time teacher when Nick disturbs his Saturday teaching and takes him, Kate and the entire audience on a wild ride.
One of newspaper reviewers made sure to state this is not Heat. Moreover, even though there are several references to other action movies, the get up and go this movie needed never really happens, it has little scenes that are funny but they don’t crescendo.
This type of movie was bound to happen eventually and this little engine that could is getting ink due to past pizza delivery assaults and the recent events with a bomb jacket being disarmed by police.
Ruben Fleischer handles the action, the car chases (complete with Glen Frey soundtrack) and the stand off scenes fairly well just as he did in Zombieland. The good news is the third act doesn’t fall apart like in Zombieland, the third act in 30 minutes or less is pretty tight until it ends, abruptly, like Sopranos abruptly. It’s too bad, I would have like to have seen the characters after all these events.
Overall, the movie is worth waiting until it comes out on cable. The actors are there and ignoring Danny McBride’s hillbilly antics, it was enjoyable until the end. Maybe worth a matinee if nothing else is playing.