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Friday, August 12, 2011

MOVIE REVIEW
30 Minutes Or Less

Corny Spaghetti Pizza: Offensive Stereotypes As Its Toppings



Dilshad Vadsaria as Kate.  A pleasant presence, with talents wasted in Ruben Fleischer's "30 Minutes Or Less". 
Wilson Webb/
Columbia TriStar
  

by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        Follow popcornreel on Twitter FOLLOW                                           
Fri
day, August 12, 2011

The photo above isn't of a stereotype; it's a picture of the fresh air that the stench of Ruben Fleischer's prankish comedy "30 Minutes Or Less" needed so much more of.  The young lady above is actress Dilshad Vadsaria, a bright, smart, energetic talent who plays Kate, the ping-pong object of contention between Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) and Chet (Aziz Ansari), best buddies in Mr. Fleischer's film.  I wish Ms. Vadsaria had been able to turn this weak comedy on its head but Michael Diliberti's script -- if not any sexism or politics -- doesn't allow her to.

Chet is Kate's brother, incensed that Nick has slept with her.  Chet and Nick fall out over Kate but Nick runs back to Chet seeking help after being accosted by dim-witted criminals Dwayne (Danny McBride, "Your Highness") and Travis (Nick Swardson, "Just Go With It".)  Dwayne and Travis strap a digital time-bomb to Nick's chest and force him to rob a local bank.  If Nick is successful the bomb's timer will be stopped.

"30 Minutes Or Less", which opened nationwide today, is a crude re-enactment of a true, tragic event in 2003 in which a pizza delivery man was forced to rob a bank in Pennsylvania, albeit with a time-bomb wrapped around his neck.  The bomb went off, killing him.  (The perpetrators, a man and woman, were sentenced to life in prison.)  Mr. Fleischer's wild-eyed crazies, particularly Mr. Ansari, paper over the serious parts of that event with stereotyped comedy that is ugly and frequently offensive. 

There's little energy in "30 Minutes Or Less".  Pointless and vacuous, it lazily writhes in its own uselessness.  Its exhibits: a stripper, two gullible pizza recipients, a cashier, a misanthropic Marine (Fred Ward) and father to Dwayne (who stands to gain an inheritance from his death), and a Hispanic gangster portrayed in jarringly cartoonish stereotype by Michael Peña.  This bizarre assemblage of types makes little sense and "30 Minutes Or Less" easily wins the title for the total number of insult references it crams into one scene.  It's stale, lifeless theater, designed to showcase the absurd and move on.  Each scene plays marginally better than scenes in Kevin Smith's "Cop Out".

With its scant laughs "30 Minutes Or Less" parodies scenes from "Lethal Weapon 2" (which it mentions by name) though Mr. Fleischer's comic action-adventure isn't trying to hold a candle to it.  Above all, "30 Minutes Or Less" looks too small for the big screen.  The film plays like two back-to-back television episodes and idles as if it's looking for something to do until its end arrives.  When the end comes "30 Minutes Or Less" crashes like thirty mishaps into smithereens, its caricatured pawns coming out of the woodwork or receding into it.  Overall, "30 Minutes Or Less" looks like a very rough sketch of what the Coen Brothers might have made 20 years ago.

The talented stand-up comedian and actor Mr. Ansari doesn't fit the thin material he's given here and he burns out quickly.  His Chet is a cartoonish buffoon who screeches like a hyper-hysterical Daffy Duck.  The actor's naturally high-pitched voice is reminiscent of Chris Tucker's.  Mr. Ansari's talents are used proficiently when his comedy is storytelling shtick and not prolonged physicality or verbal histrionics.  (See Mr. Ansari in "Funny People", for example.)  Mr. Eisenberg (who saw better days in "The Social Network") is essentially a pretty face here, barely the echo of the fast, wise-talking Mark Zuckerberg he portrayed in Mr. Fincher's film.  Mr. McBride does exactly what he does in the HBO series "Eastbound And Down" and various other enterprises, while Mr. Swardson plays the timid nebbish he's inhabited before.

The lone redeeming quality about Mr. Fleischer's film is that it is over in 83 minutes, which, relatively speaking, is minimal indigestion.  At least the director knows when to quit a sinking ship labeled "monkey business."


Jesse Eisenberg as Nick and Aziz Ansari as Chet, in Ruben Fleischer's "30 Minutes Or Less".  Wilson Webb/Columbia TriStar

With: Bianca Kajlich, Elizabeth Wright Shapiro, Brett Gelman, Staci Lynn Fletcher, Sam Johnston, Jack Foley. 

"30 Minutes Or Less" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association Of America for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, nudity and some violence.  The film's running time is one hour and 23 minutes.

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