I wanted to start my end of the year reviews with 30 Minutes or Less because of director Ruben Fleischer, whose Zombieland was the most pleasant surprise of 2009, a genuinely funny take on the zombie genre. And again Fleischer has surprised me with 30 Minutes or Less.
This time, however, it is not a pleasant surprise.
It is worth noting that the films do not share writers. 30 Minutes or Less is the first film of a Michael Diliberti screenplay. I have tried and failed to understand what drew people to this screenplay.
Was it the central plot? A pizza delivery driver is strpped to a bomb and told to rob a bank. When told the film is supposed to be a comedy, did anyone ever say, "Wait a minute. That's not a funny idea."
Even worse, didn't anyone say that the script didn't have much in the way of humor? Or that the guys who hook up this bomb are brain dead idiots, with nothing whatsoever interesting or appealing about them?
So since those characters are idiots, casting puts Danny McBride and Nick Swardson in the roles of the instigators. McBride can play this role in his sleep, and Swardson has minimal comic ability, so this compounds the problem.
Fleischer still has a flair as a director, and Jesse Eisenberg and especially Aziz Ansari try their best in the lead roles. But this script simply shouldn't have been filmed. Someone should have strapped a bomb to the script, and detonated. Grade: D-
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