30 Minutes or Less
As it has been with just about every other R-rated comedy I’ve seen this summer, “30 Minutes or Less” is typically funny, with a couple of moments that are ripe with hilarious inspiration, but generally surrounded by more moments of dullness, or at least a slow pace which kills the film’s comedic impact. Of course, the premise itself is flawed anyway, because, as Roger Ebert pointed out in his own review, it’s almost impossible to think of a character played by Jesse Eisenberg (especially after his Oscar-nominated performance in “The Social Network”), and pretend we’re watching a dumb individual, which his pot-smoking, slack-about pizza delivery boy is here. Eisenberg and “dumb characters” don’t really meld well; his zombie hunter in “Zombieland,” his inspired first collaboration with this film’s director, Ruben Fleischer, is smarter than he looks, and even with the bird he voiced in “Rio,” you can always tell that the mental wheels are turning. Dumb humor doesn’t really work for him, but Eisenberg is clearly having fun in the role of Nick, who is abducted and forced to rob a bank for a couple of dim-witted, wannabe criminals (played by Danny McBride, in his funniest film role since “Pineapple Express,” and Nick Swardson) looking to make some easy cash. Nick and his best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari), then do their best to pull the heist off before the bomb strapped to Nick’s chest blows up. Nick and Chet’s misadventures from the heist on are mostly funny, and sometimes hilarious, but even at a brisk 83 minutes, this story is far too complicated for its own good; if the subplot about hiring a killer to off McBride’s father, played by Fred Ward, had been removed, it surely would have kept the momentum up, not to mention added to the absurdity of the premise. Still, Fleischer and Eisenberg had more than enough goodwill post-“Zombieland” to where I’m willing to let a flawed but funny effort like this slide past without much thought.
