Review: 30 Minutes or Less

Two years ago, Ruben Fleischer made his directorial debut with the mega-hit Zombieland, which was the definition of empty fun — a slick, quick horror-comedy with lovable characters that made you forget you were watching formula. Now, Fleischer and his Zombieland star Jesse Eisenberg are back to spin the same web again in 30 Minutes or Less, and the results prove that lightning doesn’t strike twice. Applying the same lean production style to a bank heist story–the movie barely clocks in over 80 minutes–they come up with a product that could be described as a lot more ‘empty’ and a lot less ‘fun.’ The main reason is that the characters are not as rich as they were in Zombieland; while the performances are decent, we have no core interest in these people and, as a result, the silly, cliche plot overwhelms them.

Many have accused screenwriter Michael Diliberti of taking the premise from the real-life story of Brian Douglas Wells, a Pennsylvania pizza boy who was handcuffed to a bomb and forced to rob a bank, which ended in his death as the bomb went off early. Despite the production team’s denials, Diliberti probably did–the details are very similar, with the exception of the tragic end to Wells’ story–but this inspiration clearly didn’t help him write an original-feeling movie. As far as Hollywood takes on true stories go, this one is as dry as The Blind Side, with stock characters and a predictable plot-line.

Eisenberg’s Nick is essentially a mash-up of his previous characters — a pizza boy with Mark Zuckerberg’s narcissism, James Brennan’s (Adventurland) lack of direction,  and Columbus’ (Zombieland) geeky brand of action-savvy. The young actor is always a nice screen presence, but he does nothing to make us hope this guy doesn’t blow up if he isn’t able to successfully rob a bank for $100,000. Aziz Ansari fares better as his best-bud and robbery partner, Chet, but that’s just because he gets a lot of one-liners that are funny (given the scripts clear inadequacies, they were probably improvised). Ultimately, though, we could likewise care less about what happens to Chet in the end, which effectively renders the high-stakes action sequences meaningless. And while Danny McBride and Nick Swardson have a few funny moments as the idiot masterminds of the bomb-hostage plot, they are both doing the same old riff, this time wearing gorilla masks. You could pop any of their previous movies into your DVD player and get the same level of amusement (well, maybe not any — they both have done their fair share of bombs). The only truly great character is Michael Peña’s hit-man for hire–the person the $100,000 is intended to pay–who is the crazy Latino cousin of Jamie Foxx’s endearing Motherfucka Jones from Horrible Bosses.

Next on tap for Fleischer is The Gangster Squad, a period piece about the L.A.P.D.’s efforts to keep the East Coast Mafia from moving out West, starring Sean Penn, James Brolin, and Ryan Gosling. The premise promises a work more substantive than his two existing ones, which is a good thing, because he is a good director. Even though 30 Minutes or Less is a failure on a character-level, effectively dooming the rest, it is economically built and visually interesting, just as Zombieland was. It’s a shame to see good talent go to waste, so it’s encouraging to see that Fleischer’s future looks bright, even if he had to waste a couple years on this dud.

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30 Minutes or Less (2011, USA). Produced by Stuart Cornfeld, Kit Giordano, Jeremy Kramer, Monica Levinson, Brian Levy, and Ben Stiller. Directed by Ruben Fleischer. Written for the screen by Michael Diliberti. Story by Michael Diliberti and Matthew Sullivan. Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Michael Peña, Bianca Kajlich, and Fred Ward. Distributed by Columbia Pictures. Rated R, with a running time of 83 minutes.