30 Minutes or Less

November 2, 2011

I went into this movie not knowing much about it, aside from the story was about a guy forced to rob a bank. I totally did not expect that this would be the film that it was -- a black comedy about two pairs of lazy losers.

Loser Pair #1 is composed of Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), a pizza delivery guy and Chet (Aziz Ansari), his school teacher best pal and brother of his dream girl. Loser Pair #2 is Dwayne (Danny Mc Bride) and his best pal Travis (Nick Swardon), a couple of no- good bums. One day, Dwayne concocts a bright idea to kill his father to get his money. To do that he needs to hire a killer. To pay the killer, he will have to abduct someone, strap a bomb on that person and coerce him to rob a bank to get them the cash. That unfortunate someone turns out to be Nick, because he can deliver a pizza for the titular "30 minutes or less". I know that story line sounds harebrained and absurd, but believe it or not, that is exactly what you get.

In all its silliness, this movie was actually quite an entertaining one with its hilarious one-liners. For me though, it was marred by a lot of unnecessary dirty language. Was this supposed to be cool? It was not for me. I was reminded of another over-the-top buddy heist movie "From Paris With Love", but this was on a smaller scale and you do not have any character as cool as John Travolta's here. I actually liked the sidekick characters (Chet and Travis) more than the main guys (Nick and Dwayne). These sidekicks had more funny lines and likable personalities. Overall, the many unexpected surprises this film delivers makes this viewing quite a fun ride.