30 Minutes or Less (2011)

30 Minutes or Less is nothing if not an efficient film. It tells its story in a humorous, suitably chaotic way and never goes off on too many tangents. It clocks in at a lean 83 minutes, and—outside of the curiously unfunny early scenes—it moves at a lightning pace; delivering laugh after laugh and payoff after payoff until the credits suddenly roll. It is not quite as great as it could have been, but it has no further goal than to provide audiences with a quick jolt of R-rated entertainment as summer comes to a close. It’s a minor project compared even to director Ruben Fleischer’s last film Zombieland, but it recaptures the same anarchic energy that made that film such a blast. Let’s put it this way: either you like the idea of watching Aziz Ansari scream for an hour and a half or you don’t.

The film centers around Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), a pizza delivery driver who lives with his best friend Chet (Ansari). One day when he goes out for a delivery, he is briefly kidnapped by a couple of freeloaders named Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson). While he’s unconscious, they strap a bomb to his chest and order him to rob a bank within ten hours. If he goes to the police or fails to acquire the money, the bomb will explode. Who is the money for, exactly? A hit man (Michael Peña) who will kill Dwayne’s father (Fred Ward) for the price of $100,000. Things only get more complicated from there.

In fact, the film sounds rather complex when you attempt to describe the plot at length. Yet the film is incredibly simple to follow and doesn’t add anything that will detract from its central plot. The key is that the actors play every moment as straight as possible. Yes, 30 Minutes or Less is a comedy, but it doesn’t think it’s a comedy. The humor comes from the terror the characters are feeling and the rash decisions they make in the midst of the confusion. We are laughing at them, not with them. Otherwise this film could have turned into the second coming of Your Highness, where the actors are cracking each other up, but the audience is never laughing along.

It’s curious, however, that the film takes some time to get off the ground. The early scenes pile on quite a bit of exposition at the expense of any real laughs, and most attempts at jokes fall flat. At its worst, it feels like deleted scenes from a Judd Apatow film, as the characters spend several minutes riffing without moving the story forward. The stronger R-rated comedies of this year—think Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher—were ensemble films that justifiably devoted several minutes to humorous interactions between the characters. As a result, the films were able to build their universes and develop their characters. While it sounds strange to criticize 30 Minutes or Less for trying to thoroughly introduce its characters, these moments don’t work simply because this film was never meant to be a character-driven comedy. The film is at its best when it fully embraces its more rampageous elements.

While none of the roles in the film are particularly challenging, each actor is able to carry their share of the comedic weight. Eisenberg plays slightly against type here as a Seth Rogen-like slacker who is thrust into a situation that he can never fully comprehend. He pulls it off well enough, particularly in the scenes when he freaks out for minutes on end. Ansari basically plays the same character he’s always played, but he’s so wonderfully good at it that it’d be wrong to complain. McBride more than atones for the utterly lame Your Highness with a fine turn here as another one of his faux-macho cowards. But to me, it was quite exciting to see Nick Swardson finally provide solid work in a film that wasn’t a horrid Adam Sandler vehicle, and I firmly believe he can have a nice career if he starts to avoid Happy Madison like the plague. (Which he won’t, but alas.)

When this film is on a roll it’s an incredibly fun ride, even if it sputters out of the gate and some of the jokes don’t always click. But it’s hard to argue when a film is as well-done and energetic as this. Thus far, Fleischer has made two good films which have taken potentially horrifying premises—a zombie apocalypse and an unstable bomb strapped to an innocent man’s chest—and turned them into freewheeling comedies. This is an up-and-coming filmmaker that I’m really excited about, and if he raises his ambitions in future films I think he’s capable of some pretty terrific things. For now, 30 Minutes or Less is a solid sophomore effort; a fleeting but raucous good time that plays to all of his strengths.

GRADE: B

I wrote a less-rambly review for The Lantern last week. Read it here.