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Genre
Director
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Cast
Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Bianca Kajlich, Michael Peña, Fred Ward, Brett Gelman, Rebecca Cox, Rick Irwin, Torey Adkins
Storyline
Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small town pizza delivery guy whose mundane life collides with the big plans of two wanna-be criminal masterminds (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). The volatile duo kidnaps Nick and forces him to rob a bank. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlists the help of his ex-best friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari). As the clock ticks, the two must deal with the police, hired assassins, flamethrowers, and their own tumultuous relationship.
Opinion
Are we sure this is the same Ruben Fleischer who did Zombieland? Because it didn't feel like it. I had high expectation for it given the cast, director, and plot. I don't really know what happened.
Slightly entertaining, 30 Minutes or Less is an action comedy with some action and a tiny dose of comedy.
The plot sounds intriguing and with a lot of potential, but the problem is the way it's executed. It starts out very slow, and it never really take off. The screenplay is just bad. I can't say anything to save it. Also, I don't think making a producer write a script would be a good idea. The romantic subplot doesn't get along with the film.
Vulgar and with continuous sexual references, most of jokes feel too forced, and they lose of effectiveness - only a couple of jokes worked for me, and that's not enough to carry a comedy, even if only 83 minutes long.
The characters are also bad. First, they are not well developed. Second, regardless from being the duo of protagonists or the duo of antagonists, they all are bad people, and you don't know who to root for since they all are bad. At some point in the movie Nick and Chet say they are a perfect match because they are terrible people. I think there's nothing more to add.
The acting is pretty poor. Jesse Eisenberg succeeds in his usual awkward role - I wonder why he wasn't in This Is the End. But besides from that, everybody sucks. Danny McBride is back with another of his annoying roles, and he is just trying too hard to be funny. Aziz Ansari doesn't have comic timing, and his performance is flat. Nick Swardson is not better than the previous mentioned. I wonder how Michael Peña got involved in this. At least, there is a quite good chemistry between Eisenberg and Ansari, and McBride and Swardson.
Yeah, this one just doesn't work. Didn't help that I can't stand Ansari nor Swardson and I'm only lukewarm toward McBride and Eisenberg. If I had to guess why Eisenberg wasn't in This is the End, I'd say it's because the performer he most reminds me of is, Michael Cera. It seems they often play the same character in the same way. Just typing that makes me cringe at what might become of Eisenberg playing Lex Luthor. I hope he proves me wrong.
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