Ruben Fleischer’ first film, Zombieland, showed a lot of promise. It was the perfect blend of a buddy comedy, zombie movie, and action flick. It had a fresh and unique style with an appropriate hard rock soundtrack, a quirky and fun “rules” system, and some of the best uses of slow motion in recent memory. Fleischer’s sophomore effort, 30 Minutes or Less, sadly lacks all the cleverness and charm of his debut effort. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg (also starring in Zombieland) as a pizza delivery guy trapped in a mundane life. During a delivery he is taken hostage by two bumbling criminals (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) and they strap a bomb around him and force him to rob a bank – all in order to get money to hire a hitman to kill McBride’s gruff ex-Marine father (Fred Ward) who won the lottery in an effort to get his inheritance. All the while Eisenberg rounds up his best friend (Aziz Ansari) to assist him on his robbery; Eisenberg also happens to be in love with Ansari’s sister. The plot is surprisingly convoluted for an 80-minute film, I must say.
I love most of the actors involved with this film, but I just didn’t find any of them likable here. Swardson and McBride were supposed to come off as funny by their buffoonery I suppose, but almost all of their lines were just swears and “playground humor” (‘that’s what she said’ is uttered more than once, never landing a laugh). Eisenberg is pretty much doing his thing in this one, but it’s his friend, Aziz Ansari who is possibly the only one in the film who gets any real laughs. That said though, they were another pair that I just didn’t care about. Early on in the film the two are having an argument over sleeping with a girl; at this point we haven’t been introduced the characters at much length, and it’s just like ‘who cares?’ Their many “arguments” throughout the film feel unnatural and written, alongside Eisenberg’s “distress” of having a bomb attached to him and having to rob a bank. Plus, he talks his friend way too easily into helping him break the law – after a short and sweet “pretty please” he jumped right on board with little apprehension.
The biggest crime this action-comedy commits is that it basically has no jokes. Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but for the most part it seriously doesn’t. The movie relies only on the ludicrousness of the situation to make you laugh. You must think: “Oh, wow. This is one crazy situation! This is funny because they are underprepared to rob a bank!” It’s more through its absurdity that you may chuckle, but when thinking back, I barely remember any set-up, punch line jokes in the entire film. It’s sad considering Zombieland seemed to be brimming with the wit lacking in this film.
30 Minutes or Less is hugely disappointing. I did like some of the music choices and I enjoyed (as Fleischer’s work seems to always have) the great opening titles sequence, but in a comedy, first and foremost it has to be funny. Of course taste in comedy changes from person to person, but I think I fall under this movie’s intended “male geek” demographic (Friday the 13th, rock music, the Contra code – all included) and since I found it to be a mess, I feel I have the right to say it’s a stinker. Could’ve been great, ended up ‘meh.’
Rating: C-
PS: Be sure to stay AFTER the credits because you get a snicker-worthy look at what happens to some of the characters.
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