It’s truly hard to put my finger on exactly how I felt about 30 Minutes or Less. I found my self enjoying a handful of scenes during this movie which was surprising because it clearly is not a very good movie. The execution during parts were certainly on, but during others it just seemed like they were striving to have a coherent story when in fact it was just falling a part. 30 Minutes or Less was just a very odd, dark and a subpar comedy with some fun action thrown in the mix.

First off, knowing that this is actually based on a true and very disturbing story just makes you uncomfortable to be watching the situation being made light of. Looking passed that though, the fun of this film came from the pair Aziz Ansari and Jesse Eisenberg. The delivery was there with both of them and they were very funny.

There’s this belief in regards to performance sometimes that essentially states ones voice is the same as portraying a character. Though Jack Torrance (The Shining) and R.P. McMurphy (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) have the same unique voice, they are two completely different characters played to perfection by Jack Nicholson. No, Jesse Eisenberg’s performances aren’t to the caliber of Jack Nicholson, but he does however do a great job here portraying a different character from his other roles.

The pair in this film are not so enjoyable (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson). I for one do not find Nick Swardson very funny at all regardless of the role he’s playing. I’m open for surprise, but with his character here, I got what was expected; a bad comedic performance. The same could really be said about Danny McBride, I get what he’s going for, but its simply not that funny. Whereas his comedy might work in some aspects in a great comedy like Pineapple Express, it really doesn’t work in a subpar comedy like this.

At the end of the day, if you go see 30 Minutes or Less you might laugh occasionally, you might be entertained at other points (the actual robbery, the car chases, some of the story driven scenes between Jesse and Aziz), but at some point, most likely, the obvious fact will be realized; you’d rather be watching something better.

Grade: C