30 Minutes Or Lessby Wilson Morales
With so many films centering on comic books (Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America) or weddings (Jumping The Broom, Something Borrowed, Hangover II), was there any left to be desired as the summer comes to a close this month.
Timing is everything when it comes to comedy, and the jokes have to be set at the right scene. With clever direction from Ruben Fleischer, leave it to the ensemble cast of Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, and Michael Pena to make ’30 Minutes or Less’ one of the funniest films of 2011.
Eisenberg and Ansari play ex-best friends/ roommates Nick and Chet, who go about their daily business with Nick delivering pizzas around town and Chet, a substitute teacher, looking to distance himself from Nick after finding out that Nick slept with his sister (played by Dilshad Vadsaria).
Meanwhile, Dwayne (played by McBride) and his best bud Travis (Swardson) play a pair of numnuts in search of a big payday. After so much verbal abuse from his military father (played by Fred Ward), Dwayne decides to kill him so he can inherit his recent lottery winnings but needs $100,000 to pay off the would-be assassin (played hilariously by Pena).
Not looking to do the dirty work themselves, they kidnapped Nick and strap a bomb to his chest, telling him that he must rob a bank and bring the money to them before they can let him go.
Needing assistance, Nick goes to Chet, who reluctantly agrees to help him get out of this mess before the two of them end up on the tail end of an explosion.
When paired with McBride, Swardson, and Ansari, Eisenberg, who’s coming off his Oscar nominated role in ‘The Social Network,’ has no funny bones, but with Michael Diliberti’s screenplay, he’s able to hold among these gifted comedians. McBride has always been funny in most of his films, but it’s as Fleischer and Diliberti let him go off-script and inject his own lines to make the scene work. Although his humor was unfunny in ‘Your Highness,’ he’s downright, hysterically witty here. The same goes for Ansari. After seeing his comedic skills on TV’s ‘Parks and Recreation,’ if there was a time when an actor has his shining star in a film, ’30 Minutes’ does it for him.
Pena, who’s been seen a lot lately in 2011 with ‘Battle LA,’ ‘The Lincoln Lawyer,’ the upcoming ‘Tower Heist,’ and now this, steals every scene he’s in. From his looks to his expressions, who knew he could make one laugh while looking deadly.
At a running time of 83 minutes, ’30 Minutes’ moves quickly and the laughs come from the start of the film. One gets an enjoyable evening’s entertainment after leaving the theater.
