"The art of getting out alive"

Title: 30: Minutes or Less

Year: 2011

Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Writer: Michael Diliberti, (story), Michael Diliberti y Matthew Sullivan

Runtime: 83min

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson.

Produc.: Columbia Pictures, Media Rights Capital, Red Hour Films

Budget: $28 million approx.

30 Minutes or Less tells how Dwayne (Danny McBride), a rude man and good for nothing who lives with The Mayor, his millionaire father (Fred Ward), and who one night and thanks to a stripper´s insinuation, decides to hire a murderer to kill his father and keep his fortune. The problem is that Dwayne does not have the money to afford one, so what he will need is someone to rob a bank for him and who incriminate. This is how he calls to a pizza house and then kidnaps Nick, the delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg), who he sentences to follow orders under the threat of an explosive blast that it now attached to his chest.

Ruben Fleischer re-invites us to the theaters after his previous 2009 Zombieland, which took place in the context of the living dead. This time the young director switches from the undead to a banking crime, with all the before and after the robbery, but without leaving aside the comic genre. The film features a car chase and a little romance, and while it is very simple and pretty silly, it´s a good entertainment to see with friends.

The biggest problem for Flesicher here lies in the script, since it lacks of that intelligent and witty sense of humor capable of making one laugh to tears. We must remember that, ultimately, what Americans think its funny revolves around the physical humor, with violence; to the sillynes, with some actors showing a high degree of idiocy; to the rudeness, with constant offensive comments; and to the rudeness agian, with the exaggerated use of the word "fuck" and its derivatives.

In one of the earliest attempts from 30 Minutes or Less to make us laugh, Nick and Chet (Aziz Ansari) are sitting while chatting and watching TV at Chet´s place, when one comment leads to another and they end up talking about, when not, about the sexual orientation of a boy. And it gets even heavier when it comes up a sensitive issue like it is Chet sister´s sexuality. Quickly, the boy loses his temper and throws over Nick, both falling to the floor, couch included.

Later on we see Dwayne and Travis watching Friday the 13th Part 3 with 3D glasses, on a giant screen. Suddenly, Travis jumps out of shock when Jason shakes his ax and at the next moment Dwayne jokes, proving that he is not afraid of Jason and closer to the screen to simulate that he is molesting the serial killer. To all off this appears the Mayor, to make them quit and to stop embarrassing him. Such situations, which are supposed to be funny, are the ones that plague the new American cinema, and that although they may, from time to time, perhaps, make us laugh, they are ultimately synonymous of decadence, and not of the human growth. But fortunately, in this comedy they do not exceed in abundance.

The film also features shooting scenes, a car chase and a little romance, and while it is very simple and rather silly, it´s a very basic entertainment to see with some friends.

My rating: 5/10

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