30 Minutes or Less is a half cooked comedy featuring a lot of dumb slackers.Dwayne (Danny McBride) wants to open a massage parlour with his partner Travis (Nick Swardson) but he needs to get hold of his dad's money who has no time for this waste of space. So Dwayne hires a hitman who would do the job for 100k to kill his dad.To raise the money they decide to kidnap a slacker pizza delivery boy Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) and strap a bomb vest on him. They order Nick to rob a bank and steal the 100k or else the bomb will go off.Fearing for his life, Nick persuades his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) to help him out. Dwayne has no plans to leave any loose ends behind.The film is not that funny, the plot is absurd but at least it ends in a satisfying note and it has a short running time.

I'm starting to really like Jesse Eisenberg as an actor. Yeah, he isn't that great, but the movies are great and the characters he plays are fun. I also like Aziz Ansari, mostly because I like his stand up and I like his show Master of None on Netflix. Those two were the main reasons I was interested in this movie - them and the plot seemed interesting.Of course after reading about it online, the story of the movie seems more and more wrong. I don't know how many of my readers are aware of the death of Brian Douglas Wells. I only learned about this now, mostly because I was seven at the time it happened and wasn't exactly following news. I'm not sure if I've quickly read through something about the case, but I wasn't really that aware of it. And even if the makers of the movie claim the case of Brian Douglas Wells hadn't inspired the movie, it does feel pretty bizarre how similar the situations are, and how they kind of made that situation into a comedy. But before I learned about that I actually did enjoy the movie. It is thrilling and funny. Best part of the movie is the dialogue. It's the best kind of dialogue in an action comedy. It's weirdly casual and natural yet it suits the unusual situation. However the plot does have so unfortunately typical plot points we'd all rather just let die. They are easy to predict and frustrating and frankly they are getting old.I enjoyed this movie. It's okay for an action comedy - action comedies don't need to be good, they just need to be entertaining, and 30 Minutes or Less definitely is. The key note is: it could've been better. Everything about this movie could've been way better, but either the filmmakers didn't think that, or they were satisfied with the decent movie they made.

The second feature film from Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer (but not the same film's writers) is ostensibly an "original" comedy, but borrows heavily from the true case of a pizza delivery guy who got kidnapped by two crooks, strapped with a bomb and forced to go and rob a bank. In his case it was not a comedy at all, and the guy did die (the bomb was also strapped to his head, kind of a different and more f***ed-up scenario this film wouldn't touch even if it could try). But for Fleischer and company, who needs to make it all dramatic? Or even make much sense in terms of plot? The movie carries its moments, mostly through improvisation (or what would appear to be just going off on small tangents by actors like Danny McBride and Jesse Eisenberg, the latter the pizza guy who gets the bomb strapped to him by McBride and his co-hort). And there were even those few moments where I found myself laughing hard at the actors' repore, especially when Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari get into a good groove riffing off each other about, say, their foolishness in messing each other's respective ex-girlfriends and/or sisters. And the actual bank robbery carries some real thrills (if capped by a mediocre car chase aided by some weak 80's car-chase parody).Ultimately I couldn't get over how needlessly complicated the plot was in McBride's plot to knock off his father, played by Fred Ward (who actually steals his scenes completely as a crazed ex-Major who won the lottery), as a plot to make millions comes down to a pizza delivery boy. Perhaps if Elmore Leonard was brought in for a rewrite it could've been made brilliant.As it stands it's a stupid story perked up by a stupid series of comic-suspense set-pieces as Eisenberg and Anzari prepare for the robbery. For some the crazy hijinks will be enough. For me, it could have done a lot more, despite the principal cast members doing their best to bring it up to something better.

Such a pity, but this film sounds promising, and has a promising plot, but I'm afraid to say it fails on all accounts. Except for a great opening scene with Jesse Eisenberg driving head over heels in his rotten 80'ies Mustang to deliver pizzas within the promised 30 minutes or less, to prevent the pizza's to be free, there's nothing here! You can stop watching after 5 minutes! Or, to make fun with the title, don't watch more than 39 minutes!The problem is that to fill a great plot, you've gotta have a great script. And as this is a comedy, it should be funny as well. I stead thus is like film filled with high low budget school comedy language and humor. I didn't gave one single laugh throughout the film. I still give it a 4, due to the following: A promising and great opening scene, which still is a film I'd like to see. A great plot, which still is a film I'd like to see. A-class actors Jesse Eisenberg and Fred Ward, which I still like to see. A great budget, which I would have liked been used on a good film.Unless you like like unfunny comedies based in great plots, stay away. Life's too short, and there are too many good films out there to enjoy. Please do!