30 Minutes or Less Review

You can go right down the line – Aziz Ansari, Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson. You literally check off which of these guys you think is funny. After you’ve picked out who you think is funny, decide how much you like Michael Peña. Did you find him funny in the second season of Eastbound & Down? If so, add a half star. It’s that simple.

For me, it goes Aziz, Kenny Powers and Nick Swardson. I’m a huge fan of Jesse Eisenberg, but he’s never the funny part of his films. I get to cheat because I saw the movie, but Michael Peña was pretty funny. As a comedy, I’d give 30Minutes or Less 3 1/2 stars out of four. The simple reason? It was funny to me.

Now, not everyone agrees. Shit. Almost no one agrees. It’s just 41% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I’m OK with that. Grandma’s Boy is 18%. Super Troopers is 35%. Tommy Boy is 46%. Critics don’t always get comedies. They tend to let things like plot and realism creep into their review and look at a comedy as a film, instead of a funny movie.

Jesse Eisenberg plays a more hyper character than we’ve seen him in previous films like The Social Network and Adventureland. He’s even more hyper than he is in Zombieland, but that’s in the right direction. Fittingly, the film was directed by Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer.

Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson all do what they usually do and if you like what they usually do, you should love 30 Minutes or Less. Aziz plays the wise-ass best friend who helps Jesse Eisenberg rob a bank to save his life. Danny McBride plays Kenny Powers without the mullet. It’s really the only character Danny McBride plays, but fuck it. I still find it funny. That’s why I watch 6 minute K-Swiss commercials. Nick Swardson usually plays effeminate for laughs. For 30 Minutes, he plays more of a dummy (though an amateur explosives expert) and nixes the limp wrists.

Then there’s Michael Peña who is barely in the trailers. Peña is the surprise of the film, playing some weird gangster with an indecipherable speech impediment. I’m sorry, a hitman with a lisp is just funny to me.

The plot of the film is simple (and too stupid not to be real) – Danny McBride needs to kill his father so he can inherit his money. So he hires a hitman. To pay the hitman, he straps a bomb to a guy and forces him to rob a bank. It’s based on the collar-bomb case from 2003, though the people behind the case deny it. Just look at the similarities.

If you’re familiar with the case and/or seen the video (it’s online), you might not be looking to find humor in 30 Minutes or Less. A pizza guy’s head exploding live on television doesn’t really tickle the funny bone. That doesn’t happen in the movie though. The movie would have been a whole lot darker if it had.

As it stands, I laughed a lot. It was four actors I enjoy saying funny things. Of the movies I’ve reviewed here, it’s probably going to go down as my favorite. (To review, it would be up against Bridesmaids, Hangover II, Horrible Bosses) 30 Minutes or Less had me laughing and the entire theater was laughing most of the time too. Not sure how that will translate into box office success (5iVnal De5tination 5 should dominate the weekend), but it will definitely end up in my movie collection.