As a subcategory of the horror genre, the exorcism film does not have the best reputation. For every The Exorcist, there are a dozen Posessed’s and Beyond the Door’s. Yet, when done well, there is rarely something as profoundly [...]
The age of the misfit comedy has officially begun. A visit to the theater shows the most promising trailers to lie in the hands of Freaks and Geeks royalty, writers of razor sharp wit, and producers hailing from beloved titles like Superbad. Now, in a landscape of hilarious “offbeat” comedies, 30 Minutes or Less hardly skips a beat.
30 Minutes follows Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), an everyman-boy who spends his time delivering pizzas and crushing on the sister (Dilshad Vadsaria) of his best friend, Chet (Aziz Asnari). Starting out with all the hallmarks of a buddy comedy, from badly coordinated fighting to hurling profanity-laden insults at each other, the film pulls a 180 when two amateur criminals, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson) strap a bomb onto Nick’s chest and instruct him to rob a bank in the next 10 hours.
Jesse Eisenberg, selected previously in director Ruben Fleischer’s Zombieland, is a careful and deliberate choice. Eisenberg, who received an Oscar nod for his role in The Social Network, is at home as the narcissistic and wryly witty Nick. 30 Minutes gives him the opportunity to exercise his asshole muscles more extensively than his role in Zombieland, and the effect is simultaneously funny and endearing. Eisenberg has a unique talent for switching from the self absorbed cruelty of the standard young man to a cautious vulnerability that is so authentic, it is impossible to not be taken in by his characters.
At opposite, Aziz Asnari gets most of the film’s funny, portraying his character with a theatricality that, while at times breaking the fourth wall with the feeling of a stand-up routine, is also the greatest comedic strength of the film. In comparison, Eisenberg at times fails to carry his end, and their banter sometimes leans too heavily on Asnari’s comedic strength. However, even with a bit of overacting from Asnari, the jokes are predominantly successful and the witty and fast-paced script picks up any necessary slack.
The film’s villains are worth noting as well for their more low-brow style of humor. As two rednecks, McBride and Swardson are in their element. In comparison to Nick and Chet, the two criminals’ interaction seems a bit slow and lacking in the cracking wit; however, the juxtaposition of the laughs creates a well-rounded film with jokes for fans of all comedy types. Fleischer has showed himself to be very skilled at making humorous films that not only lampoon a genre (such as the Zombie flick, or now, the heist movie), but also use the tools of that genre to construct a surprisingly effective film in its own right. 30 Minutes functions perfectly as another offbeat bromance with bite, but it is also simply a good movie about robbing a bank–something that cannot be said about many films.
And that is what 30 Minutes is. Some bank robbers just have more fun.
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1 comments:
This is no comedy classic, but it delivers plenty of laughs, thanks to a witty script and no less than five very hilarious performances, especially Ansari who totally owns every scene he's in. Good Review! Check out my site whenever you can!
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