Now Playing: 30 Minutes or Less (2011)

I was thinking about watching another old classic movie today, but my friend had other plans. "Screw that," he said "we're seeing 30 Minutes or Less!" I think I replied with a simple "oh" and that was that. I hadn't particularly wanted to see it. What I had seen had never really piqued my interest, but I was willing to give it a shot. 30 Minutes or Less stars Jessie Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari as our good guys, and Danny McBride and Nick Swardson as the villains. So did this movie bomb? And do I think it was worth the price tag to see it in the theater? Find out after the jump!


For those interested in possibly seeing this, here's a quick rundown of the story. Nick, played by Jessie Eisenberg, is a pizza delivery boy. He's way past high school, but the job lets him get by, barely. He likes to go through life with the attitude of "nothing matters". His best friend is Chet, played by Aziz Ansari. Chet has since become a teacher at a public school, and I think they live together. Dwayne (McBride) and Travis (Swardson) are also two friends, but they have even less ambitions than Nick. You see, Dwayne's father won the lottery a few years ago and won 10 million dollars. Because his father berates him all the time, and also because he's worried the old man will burn through the money before he'll get his inheritance, Dwayne decides it's time for pops to say goodbye. With the advice from a stripper, they hire a hit man to do the job, but to get the money to pay him, they kidnap Nick. After strapping a homemade, but totally functional, bomb to his chest, they tell him that he has to rob a bank for them, or die. Oh yeah, there's also a love story in here somewhere between Nick, and Chet's twin sister.

I know, the story and set up is a little convoluted. It's because of its round-about nature that it also takes a long time for the movie to get rolling. There are A LOT of scenes where you have characters just explaining what's going on or what they'll do. I was honestly kinda bored for about the first half of the movie. There were plenty of jokes in that time, and some laughing in the audience, but for the most part the packed theater was like me: silent. I'm not sure what it was. The humour just wasn't hitting me for most of the movie, and it took so long to get the premise going and introduce all the characters. That all started to change though, once the criminal stuff started happening.

Aziz Ansari & Jessie Eisenberg. Aziz's expression was usually mine with most of the jokes

Actually, one last thing I didn't really like were the jokes used early on that referenced the other movies the actors had been in. Jessie Eisenberg makes a quip about never using FaceBook, and Danny McBride makes innuendos about being a King. I just thought these broke the fourth wall in a way I didn't like. They also just weren't very funny.

OK, so once Nick was kidnapped and had the bomb strapped to him, it generally started picking up. The jokes started landing more for me, and the characters started to freak out more which made their jokes and the situations seem funnier. The bank scene and the escape were both really good. Actually, as long as they had the money, the movie just seemed better all around.

I did feel the acting was a little hit and miss though. I didn't like the characters of the bad guys Dwayne and Travis. The weird part is that whenever they had their monkey masks on, their performance just seemed better. They were more serious, more intelligent, and far more effective/scary villains. Most of the movie though, they have the masks off and are just overwhelmingly stupid.

The bad guys were always better when they had their masks on

As for Jessie Eisenberg, I thought he was really good. I liked his everyman approach he had. He really did seem like just an ordinary guy stuck in an impossible mission. When he freaks out and goes to his friend, he REALLY seems freaked out. I found myself really believing in the bomb and that he was in danger all from his reaction to it.

By the end of the movie I was enjoying myself, but I can't help remember thinking that I had made a mistake because I was so bored and thought the movie was so stupid for the first half. It took a long time to grow on me, and Danny McBride's and Aziz Ansari's styles of comedy just weren't making me laugh. Usually in a theater environment, comedies work much better because the energy of the audience gets you in the mood to laugh more. Instead, the laughter in the audience wasn't a room full of people all laughing at once and driving the positive mood forward, it was noticeable lone voices sprinkled throughout a room filled with people not laughing. It was pretty awkward.

While I liked the last half of the movie, the slow beginning makes me think this isn't really a movie you need to see in the theater. Maybe it's a rental down the road off Netflix, but I don't think it's worth the $12 I had to shell out to see it. On the other hand, if you've seen my reviews and loved comedies that I didn't think were that great, maybe this is the movie for you! Use your own judgment, because everyone's tastes are different. For those who go see it, I hope you enjoy it more than I did.