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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
Friday,
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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