Aziz Ansari and Jesse Eisenberg in "Thirty Minutes Or Less"
photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

“Thirty Minutes Or Less” (Sony Pictures)
Seemed Like Three Hours Or More

“Thirty Minutes Or Less” is a dumb movie about dumb people doing dumb things. If that is your idea of fun then have at it. You won’t be disappointed. If, however, dumb people doing dumb things turns you off then avoid this movie at all costs. Jesse Eisenberg stars in this film and the big question is why. After being so outstanding in “The Social Network” it is a shame he chose to squander his talents in a common movie like this one.

The plot focuses on Dwayne and Travis (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson), two slackers who spend their time dreaming big dreams. Dwayne is the leader of this dumb and dumber duo and he comes up with an idea to kill his father, “the Major” (Fred Ward) in order to inherit the millions he won in the lottery. These guys don’t want to do the deed themselves so they decide to hire a hit man (Michael Pena) but he costs one hundred thousand dollars.

The next step is to grab some loser off the street, strap a bomb to him, and force him to rob a bank. The loser they grab is pizza delivery man Nick (Eisenberg). Once he has the bomb strapped to him he goes to his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) for assistance. Chet is clueless about what to do to help but goes along with his friend to provide moral support if nothing else.

The film takes an amoral attitude to all the events that occur. Nobody appears to have any trouble with planning to kill Dwayne’s father and/or blowing up Nick. Robbing the bank is merely a means to an end and doesn’t faze Nick and Chet. All of this is just something that had to happen and if it benefits anyone so much the better.

Eisenberg effectively plays the slightly naïve Nick, and Ansari is wild-eyed and stunned as the drug along accomplice. McBride once again plays a totally obnoxious character (can’t he play anything else?), Swardson is totally believable as the goofy sidekick whose loyally to Dwayne is absolute.

The movie is rated R for profanity, violence and nudity.

Very little in this film is funny; very little in this film is interesting. It is just one stupid antic after another. Eisenberg deserves better roles and audiences deserve a better movie.

I scored “Thirty Minutes Or Less” a timed out 3 out of 10.