RBR: 30 Minutes or Less

In 2009, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked director Ruben Fleischer's film, Zombieland. It had fun with a genre that I typically don't watch and produced a wholly entertaining film. So I was excited to see what he would do in this latest action comedy that once again featured Jesse Eisenberg. Unfortunately, this one lacks the laughs and creativity that made their previous outing so great. The premise involves two lunkheads (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) who concoct a scheme to strap a bomb to an unsuspecting pizza delivery driver (Eisenberg) in order to force him to steal $100,000 for them so they can pay a hitman to kill one of the goon's father. Once we get the setup out of the way, the film briskly move from one scene to the next in predictable fashion and doing nothing special with this involved premise. Eisenberg and his buddy (played by Aziz Ansari, who does the spastic best friend much better than Charlie Day did in Horrible Bosses) hatch a plan, steal the money and make the drop with very surprising ease, which is disappointing and unfunny. This film either needed to punch up the script with more laughs or cast it with actors more suited for the action genre. The one positive thing is that 30 Minutes or Less barely runs 83 minutes long so it doesn't overstay its welcome. With that said, I'd rather wait 83 minutes for lukewarm pizza than watch this film again. A major disappointment here, especially given the talent (Danny McBride excluded) involved with this film. Rating: **