30 Minutes or Less (2011)

I think Jesse Eisenberg is only one really acting in 30 Minutes or Less. The rest of the main cast plays the same characters they always play. This isn't a bad movie, it's just not as funny as it could have been. The story is interesting, though, and it has a few laugh out loud moments.

This film tells the story of a pizza delivery man, who sees little future in his job because people abuse the pizza delivery pledge. One day, he is kidnapped by two criminals. An explosive device is strapped into him, and he is forced to come up with $100,000 in exchange for his safety.The plot sounds funny on paper, but the actual film does not work at all. The story is very silly, to the point where it becomes annoying instead of funny. The supposed jokes are unnecessarily over sexualised, and I honestly don't need to see tasteless scenes in the form of a lap dance. The robbery is very unbelievable, I just don't believe how effects can turn it that way. Actually, the whole film is unbelievable and annoying. I wish the film was 30 Minutes or less, but it wasn't.

30 Minutes or Less is one short film, but snappier than a angry crocodile. The story's ludicrous, but sustains our suspension of disbelief. An immature man (Dany McBride), living under a strict, wealthy father, plots his assassination. Along with his not-as-stupid-but-still-stupid best friend (Nick Swardson), they strap a bomb to a pizza delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg), and force him to rob a bank, so they can pay for a hit-man to bump off McBride's father. McBride and Swardson's stupidity match their unquestionable plans. The bank robbery's not exaggerated or understated thanks to the directing skills of Ruben Fleischer (known for Zombieland) and the main man Jesse Eisenberg. Now comfortable in the comedy field, Eisenberg naturally juggles humour with nerves. 30 Minutes or Less is chock-full of humour, action and energetic dialogue, all the while keeping character's traits. 30MoL comes with a weakness though: Danny McBride. He manages to uphold the 'biggest moron' and 'biggest typecast' awards, producing the fewest laughs. Aziz Ansari however, picks up the award for the most. He's the yin to Eisenberg's yang, joining Eisenberg on the nightmare of all days.

Two friends must work together to steal enough money demanded to be delivered to two sociopath partners-in-crime that hire an assassin to murder their boss. Already you can see how complex this plot is, but even with the simple direction between the four main characters, their stories are vastly different and could have been written more cleverly conjoined had it not had promise to work as an individual idea.Many viewers may create comparisons to other superior or inferior darkly comedies and some true events that may amuse or alienate them. Luckily, the characters are self-aware of the nonsense that may occur with unintentional deaths and stupidity from their choices. But even though every character follows their own steps to obtain what they want or please others, it doesn't do complete justice for the overall story and viewers.The cast and crew may have done their part, but most of the film could have done more for them if the writing had some crucial changes. If only it had more focus and less characters used for the wrong reasons, or used more in a way where their importance isn't limited to less appeal, this film would have felt worth more than thirty-minutes to some viewers. Instead, this is a disjointed bomb job that could have blown us away with bigger and better surprises even though the fuse had a shortage of that and more.