30 Minutes or Less

Like it or not, this summer has been the summer of the “R” rated comedy. Between “The Hangover Part II”, “Bridesmaids”, “Bad Teacher”, and “Horrible Bosses”, three R rated comedies have topped $100 million at the box office and many more have been financially successful. This has kept studios busy churning out more and more humorous stories that are filled with questionable material. This begs the question: do we really need another one? The makers of “30 Minutes or Less” would have you believe that the answer is undoubtedly yes, but I’m here to tell you just how wrong they are.

“30 Minutes or Less” is directed by “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer, and it stars the same lead, Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg plays Nick, a slacker pizza delivery guy who is in love with his best friend Chet’s sister. Nick, unfortunately, delivers a pizza late at night to two psychopathic idiots, Dwayne and Travis (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). Dwayne and Nick have a master plan that involves drugging Nick, strapping a bomb to his chest, and making him rob a bank for them.

This setup leads to a comic bank heist film where Nick and Chet (Aziz Ansari) navigate their way through a bank robbery. Like “Zombieland”, “30 Minutes or Less” is a dark and violent film that contains some genuine laughs. All four lead actors are talented and more than capable of offering some funny moments, especially Ansari from “Parks and Recreation” (TV series). Fleischer successfully keeps the film moving with plenty of action; unfortunately, “30 Minutes or Less” is only occasionally funny and often just inappropriate.

“30 Minutes” or less is rated R and is rife with content issues. The bad language is constant, with the film racking up over 300 uses of profanity and vulgarity. The violence, while played for laughs, is also evident throughout the film with most characters waving around firearms, bombs, and even flamethrowers. There is plenty of rough sexual dialogue, as well as one scene in a strip club with graphic nudity. For a movie that clocks in at less than 90 minutes, it does its best to fill the screen with as much objectionable content as possible.

For all the poor content in the film, there is very little redemptive to speak of. In fact, aside from the two lead characters showing some positive characteristics of friendship, there is nothing that makes this film worth your time. Sporadically funny, yet wholly inappropriate, viewers should spend less than 30 seconds on “30 Minutes or Less”.

Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Extreme

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