30 Minutes or Less is an action-comedy that follows Nick, a small town pizza delivery guy, as he gets himself into a sticky situation with two wanna-be criminal masterminds, Dwayne and Travis. Both of Dwayne and Travis are losers who pretty much do nothing but sit on their ass around Dwayne’s father’s house. His father had won $10 million dollars from the lottery and Dwayne wanted the money once his father died. The only catch is he couldn’t wait until he actually dies, therefore he took a hit out on his dad. The price tag on the hit was $100,000 dollars but they are both broke so they had to come up with a brilliant plan to get the money. While sitting around they noticed a commercial on the TV that the local pizza chain had a motto of “30 Minutes or Less or it’s free”. Instantly they knew how to find a guy to do the dirty work but yet have no connection back to them. They could bribe him into robbing a bank. So right before the pizza chain closed for the night they ordered a pizza out to their scrapyard and took advantage of the opportunity and knocked out Nick. Once he came to he realized that he had a bomb strapped to his chest and they were giving him instructions on how this was going to go down. With mere hours to pull off the impossible task, Nick enlisted the help of his ex-best friend, Chet. You watch as the action-comedy unfolds with Nick and Chet doing the impossible to save Nick’s life.
This movie has an excellent cast. 30 Minutes or Less stars Jesse Eisenberg as Nick the pizza delivery guy with his trusty side-kick Chet, his ex-best friend, played by Aziz Ansari. Within the last few years Eisenberg has clearly stepped up his game in terms of acting. He was just recently in The Social Network. In 2009, he was in both Zombieland and Adventureland which seemed to jump start his career. In this film he seemed perfect for the role; a stoner pizza deliverer who gets forced into robbing a bank. After seeing this movie, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of Nick.
Now Aziz Ansari was awesome also. I wasn’t to sure about his role going into the movie because he always seems to come off as an asshole in all of his characters. However in 30 Minutes or Less he was surprisingly not the same character as he always is. He was genuinely funny, I’d have to say he was the funniest person right after Danny McBride. I felt like I was laughing at nearly everything he was a part of. For the criminal mastermind who else would be better than Danny McBride? McBride did a superb job at playing the dumbass mastermind. He seems to be the go to guy nowadays if you want a stupid yet hilarious character. Just like in Your Highness he played everything to the extreme. Watching him jump around and dance in a monkey suit was funny as hell. McBride’s second in command was Nick Swardson. I haven’t seen him in a whole lot lately, the most recent was Just Go With It, however he is best known for his performances in Grandma’s Boy and The Benchwarmers.
This film was directed by Ruben Fleischer. Fleischer is best known for directing Zombieland starring Eisenberg. When it comes to directing he pretty much sticks with TV series. However as of right now he is in pre-production for The Gangster Squad that is set to come out in 2013. Fleischer will be directing that as well.
If you haven’t figured out as of yet, I thought 30 Minutes or Less was absolutely hilarious. Everything seemed to work, from the acting to the jokes. The performances by everyone were spot on for the type of movie this is. Eisenberg did an superb job as well as McBride. The one person that I was most impressed with was Ansari. Like I said, I haven’t been the most impressed with his previous pieces, however I was curious how it was going to work with him getting a much bigger role. He fit the role perfectly. The story, at first glance of the trailers, seemed to be hilarious but I didn’t quite know how they would take it. They seemed to nail this one out of the park. It was so fucking crazy that it left you wanting more. The way everything was wrapped up towards the end just seemed to close out a very smooth production.
Video: Sony has released yet another stunning Blu-ray release with 1080p. I mean it’s not reference quality but it’s more or less flawless. The quality is very balanced and clear. The colors and textures in the details are natural. The color platelets are naturally deep and perfectly balanced. I did notice a scene in which there was some troubles with the shades of color in a very dark scene but other than that it seemed to be excellent.
Audio: Sony attached their DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack to 30 Minutes or Less which matches the 1080p video quality. The soundtrack gives it perfect energy. It has the essence of loud with clarity. I didn’t notice any flaws throughout. Especially considering we are given heavier hip-hop beats, rock and roll, explosions, gun shots and car crashes. Just like the video, Sony gives us excellent quality.
30 Minutes or Less comes with an assortment of extras ranging from commentary to deleted scenes.
- Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary (HD)
- Blowing Up with the Cast & Crew of 30 Minutes or Less (HD)
- The Perfect Crime: Action and Comedy in 30 Minutes or Less (HD)
- Deleted Scenes (HD)
- Outtakes (HD)
- Previews (HD)
- BD-Live (HD)
When 30 Minutes or Less was released in theaters I couldn’t tell enough people to go and see it. Personally, it was absolutely one of the funniest movies this year. However after more and more watches of it some of the stuff will get old. I’m not so sure it has the replay value that I was hoping for when I initially saw it in theaters. The characters are and will always be hilarious. The casting was superb. This is definitely a comedy to see. Of course this isn’t a movie for everyone. If you don’t like the “it’s stupid therefore it’s funny stuff”, then this movie probably isn’t for you.
Movie – 8/10
Video – 8/10
Audio – 9/10
Special Features – 4/10