30 Minutes or Less is based loosely on the story of a pizza delivery guy who smokes weed and hates his job gets trapped and used to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest to help out two masked men.

Thus is the story of 30 Minutes or Less and the miracle of how they stretched it out to a whole 80 minutes. Now, i am not saying this film isn’t funny, it has some good laughs, but they are sparse and with a film like this, i personally, expect a lot of laughs.

THE ACTORS
Jesse Eisenberg is doing his usual, awkward geek routine. Don’t get me wrong, i loved Eisenberg in Zombieland, but it is starting to get stale especially after The Social Network. Aziz Ansari is just there. Danny McBride, i cannot stand Danny McBride in any role other than a cameo, with McBride his go-to joke is always about penis’ and it is never funny. Nick Swardson is extremely average. All in all, based on the cast alone this movie would not interest me in the slightest. However, the parts with Ansari and Eisenberg are easily the best parts of the film and provide most of the laughs, even though there are very few moments of true laughter.

THE DIRECTOR
Ruben Fleischer, how the mighty have fallen. For those who don’t know, Ruben Fleischer directed Zombieland, one of the funniest, more original comedies of 2009. The directing is alright i guess, nothing compared to the overall feel Fleischer gave Zombieland, but passable. However the question remains, was Zombieland just Fleischer getting lucky or will 30 Minutes or Less be a black mark on a future directors great record? I certainly hope it is the latter.

LAUGHTER FACTOR
The laughter factor in this film is low considering the “talent” you have working on it, Jesse Eisenberg coming off an Oscar nomination and Zombieland, Aziz Ansari a popular comedian, Danny McBride a fanboy favourite and Ruben Fleischer the director of Zombieland.

CONCLUSION
There are a couple of laughs but not as many as you would expect and it is definitely one of the more weaker comedies of 2011, but by no means a terrible film and definitely not the worst comedy i have seen. It is by no means a slow movie, but it just doesn’t have good enough jokes to be a truly hilarious film. I definitely expected a lot more from the reunion of Eisenberg and Fleischer.

MY SCORE
6/10