30 Minutes Or Less Movie Review

Dassera day being a holiday , ‘yours truly’ once again ventured to the cinema hall with fellow filmaholic “Cinemausher” to watch the latessht ‘NTR’ Jr Blockbuster Oosaravelli at PVR Mulund.

Totally  underestimating the power of Shri NTR , yours truly left home casually at 2 p.m for the  3 p.m show. Already with one ticket in hand and reaching at 2.30 p.m, I  surprisingly didn’t get my ticket for the 3 p.m show. Then another shocking revelation – the 6 pm show was also full. Yours truly didn’t understand what hit him. And also envisioned NTR jr  with a halo above his head smiling wickedly around yours truly and saying “You arent my true fan, go away”.

Oosaravelli - the movie which we could not watch

Realisation then dawned upon yours truly that just like you can’t visit Shirdi until Sai Baba calls you , similarly you can’t watch NTR Jr’s movie on the big screen , until NTR. Jr’s  doesn’t come calling out to you. Enough of praising the divine powers of NTR Jr, let’s get to the movie review.

Anyways , since returning without watching a movie would have meant Lord Celluloid being angry, hence we settled to watch ’30 Minutes Or Less’ for the 3 p.m show. Since there was no Force, Sahib, Biwi etc playing during that time. Also, since  the posters screamed “From The Director Of Zombieland”

The story revolves around a loser pizza delivery  boy (Jesse Eisenberg)  stuck in shit job with an equally pathetic friend (Aziz Ansari) and whose sister (Dilshad Vadsaria)Eisenberg is going around with.

Suddenly he finds himself robbing  a bank or else the bomb strapped around his chest goes off . The bomb has been strapped by a good for nothing stoner  duo of friends (Nick Swardson, Danny McBride) who want to steal the riches from McBride’ s super rich father.

As said earlier , the main reason I went to watch the movie was  because I love the movie Zombieland. Director Fleischer had made one hell of a kick ass zombie comedy which turned all the zombie movie cliches on their head.

Hoping that he could repeat the success of Zombieland, Fleischer attempts another comedy on the similar lines. But this time in the action comedy genre. But it is the script (Michael Dilberti, Matthew Sullivan) that fails him this time. Oscillating between situations & dialogues that are times funny & at times predictable , dull , dumb etc.  ’30 Minutes or Less’ squanders a good opportunity.

The chemistry between the duo of friends (Eisenberg/Ansari & Swardson/McBride) is good. And the way Swardson & McBride keep wasting time is also funny many a times. Also the bank robbery scenes are funny.In between there are some funny dialogues .And in between you also see a moment or two of male bonding.

But overall the film is quite predictable. Also Director Ruben Fleischer seems confused at times whether to make this a proper ‘Stoner comedy tuned heist comedy’or a dark comedy. This hampers the overall film. Because at times you feel this film will end as a dark comedy but it ends up as something else. Not that someone expects this film to be a Shawshank redemption or The Prestige, but as mentioned earlier it is not  a Zombieland too , which is quite disappointing.

Jesse Eisenberg has performed the atypical loser/nerd roles to perfection in films like Zombieland, Adventureland (too many ‘land’s eh..). A role like this is cakewalk for him. And he does good (but not that great) with his typical fast but clear & efficient  dialogue delivery which involves a bit of mumbling. From ‘The Social Network’ last year to this film, Eisenberg comes  few notches down

Aziz Ansari at times is good, but otherwise annoying thanks to the  exaggerated mannerisms & movements of the face, hand and a screechy voice. Many a times you feel like maybe he’s trying to win the ‘Desi Chris Tucker contest’ . Vadsaria is also okay. Nick Swardson & Danny McBride are good as the stoner duo.

Also what kind of draconian laws are the Indian Censor Board following? Beeping dialogues and cutting scenes in an already A -rated film. This also screws the film in many ways. Perhaps the Censor Board is also stoned , while they are at work

On the whole (thats due to inspiration from  Taran Adarsh), ’30 minutes or less’ is an okay watch. Which you might enjoy on DVD, but there’s no need for you to rush to the ‘plex. So wait for the DVD to hit the stores. And till then you can perhaps watch other movies. Or perhaps watch Zombieland. But if you are planning to watch a duo of 45+ men acting dumb & stupid (Read ‘Rascals)or other such similar movies . Maybe, then you can watch this movie, you would be better off.

Maybe that day by not getting tickets for NTR Jr’s movie Oosaravelli, NTR Jr had sent subliminal messages of staying at home  and avoid watching this movie. But mere mortals like yours truly  will perhaps never to be decipher these subliminal messages.

Rating – 2.5/5

P.S – I completed this review in almost less than 30 minutes