Hey folks, Valkor here. And it's been awhile since I did a serious MediaView review. Willy Wonka doesn't really count because it's an older film, which is fine because that film is bad ass. But I've missed doing more recent films (especially the independents), so It's great to back in my media chair. And thanks to the folks at Sony Home I get to check out a film I've wanted to see since its theatrical release, but never got the chance. The film is "30 Minute or Less" and trutheshly… it was pretty damn funny.
"30 Minutes or Less" is a parallel buddy picture that mainly centers on average guy Nick (Jesse Eisenberg… you know "The Social Network" Guy); the dude sells pizza for a living, smokes pot, lives with his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari), is in love with said friend's twin sister Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria), and… he's got a bomb strapped to his body. How'd that happen? Enter Dwayne (Danny McBride), a stay at home, do nothing but hang with his best bud Travis (Nick Swardson); Dwayne decides he's gonna off his dad to get to his inheritance sooner rather than wait for the man to die and the money well to dry up. A stripper friend "Juicy" (Bianca Kajlich) is the one who put the idea in Dwayne's head to off his dad and knows of the perfect hit man. But it will cost Dwayne 100 grand to get him to do the job. So He and Travis come up with a plan to dupe someone into getting the money for them as to not get their hands completely dirty. And that's where Nick comes in. Dwayne and Travis trick Nick into delivering pizza to them, knock him out and then him up strap to a bomb with this ultimatum – get them the hundred grand by robbing a bank in ten hours or BOOM goes the dynamite!
So what does Nick do? He grabs his best friend Chet and proceed to rob the bank… successfully I might add. But when they go to turn in the money that's when the situation gets kinda ugly. And I'll stop there as I don't want to entirely ruin the funny. And this film is quite funny.
The BD (Blu Ray) has a bunch of extras, the standard fair really – you get Picture-in-Picture commentary with the actors of the film, "The Perfect Crime: Action and Comedy in 30 minutes or Less", which is more behind the scenes where everyone praises the movies awesomeness, deleted scenes, outtakes, and trailers. Now let's saddle up and ride this mount into the TOV Breakdown!
The Good:
To start "30 minutes or Less" has a decent storyline that sometimes jumps the rails, but for the most part stays the course and flows at a brisk pace. Going in, I thought this would be one of those comedic disaster films, you know where the two protagonists run into bad luck every step of the way but in the end they save the day, however you don't get that. Yea Nick and Chet run into their share of misfortune, but it's nothing over the top. The best scene in the film goes out to the bank robbery and when the dude gets shot in the leg... I lost it! The jokes were very clever and they're tossed straight at you; but they're not, you know, thrown at you haphazardly… the jokes makes sense and are on point beat for beat! What ultimately sells the film for me are the strong actors behind the jokes. Jesse Eisenberg, I haven't seen any of your films, but I enjoyed your worked in this picture. However Aziz Ansari, now you're past work I have seen and dude is pretty funny. You can tell a lot of his mannerisms were pulled from his stand up, and that's not a bad thing because it works so well here. Nick Swardson doesn't over the top it for once and plays it low key, but still brings the funny. However stand out, without a doubt, goes to Danny McBride as Dwayne; the jokes coming from him are clever, yet raunchy and flows from him like a fine wine - he's perfect all the way through. Overall "30 Minutes or Less" is a solid comedy with some pretty strong acting…
The Bad:
… But why do they call it an action/comedy when there isn't that much action? There's nothing here that'll leave you on the edge of your seat and the action that's in the film is more joke related. Also the romantic storyline could have been cut out, yea Dilshad is easy on the eyes, but the love interest serves as more of a distraction than anything else. And why does Aziz and Dilshad have names like "Chet" and "Kate"???
The Funny:
At the start of the film (few minutes in), Chet is getting his knobbed slobbed. And at the end of it the chick plants him one on teh lips. If he'd licked em I would have died!
"30 Minutes or Less" is is 80 plus minutes of pure entertainment that I'm surprised I enjoyed as much as I did. With a solid storyline, great performances (Danny McBride you're my new comedic hero), and loads of laughs has earned the film 3.5 stars out of 5. "30 Minutes or Less" will be available Nov 29th on Blu Ray and DVD, which not only makes for great watching but an awesome holiday gift.
