30 Minutes or Less

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30 Minutes or Less
30 Minutes or Less Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Produced by Stuart Cornfeld
Ben Stiller
Jeremy Kramer
Screenplay by Michael Diliberti
Story by Michael Diliberti
Matthew Sullivan
Starring Jesse Eisenberg
Danny McBride
Aziz Ansari
Nick Swardson
Michael Peña
with Fred Ward
Music by Ludwig Göransson
Cinematography Jess Hall
Editing by Alan Baumgarten
Studio Media Rights Capital
Red Hour
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)
  • August 12, 2011 (2011-08-12)
Running time 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Spanish
German
Budget $28 million[1]
Box office $40,000,000

30 Minutes or Less is a 2011 American action comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari and Nick Swardson. It is produced by Columbia Pictures and funded by Media Rights Capital.

Contents

Plot [edit]

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a slacking, marijuana-fueled pizza delivery driver who has trouble completing the "30 Minutes Or Less" policy that his employer issues, leading to a reprimand from his boss Chris (Brett Gelman). Nick's friend Chet (Aziz Ansari), a school teacher, discovers that Nick has slept with and still has feelings for Chet's twin sister Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria). It is also revealed that Chet was the reason Nick's parents divorced, because he told Nick's father that his wife had been cheating on him with a lifeguard. After a heated argument, the two end their friendship.

Meanwhile, two older delinquents named Dwayne King (Danny McBride) and his friend Travis Cord (Nick Swardson) are miserable living under the shadow of Dwayne's domineering father the Major (Fred Ward), incidentally a multi-million-dollar state lottery winner. Dwayne confides in lap-dancer Juicy (Bianca Kajlich) about his contempt for his father, who is squandering Dwayne's presumed inheritance while nowhere near dying anytime soon. Juicy tells him she knows a hit-man who will kill Dwayne's dad for $100,000, so that Dwayne can receive the inheritance 'sooner'. At Travis's suggestion, he and Dwayne devise a plot to kidnap a complete stranger and strap a remote-controlled bomb to his chest, to compel him to rob a bank for them for the hit money Dwayne needs. After seeing an advertisement for the pizzeria that Nick works at, they order a pizza and wait for a driver to come to their hideout. When Nick arrives, Dwayne and Travis (who are wearing a gorilla and monkey mask) assault him and knock him unconscious.

When Nick wakes up, he finds a vest rigged with explosives strapped and buckled onto his torso, with both a timer and a cellular phone activatible trigger. Disguised, Dwayne and Travis tell him his situation: if he does not rob a bank within 10 hours, the bomb will detonate, and for effect, demonstrate another bomb blowing up a stuffed Teddy bear. Dwayne states that if Nick dares going to the police, they will remotely detonate the bomb, as they will be monitoring him. They send a frantic Nick on his way. In his panic, Nick goes to a school where Chet is working and desperately pleads with him to help. After plans to deactivate or remove the bomb are dashed, Chet says he has no choice but to rob the bank. Still uneasy, Nick asks Chet to assist him. Chet reluctantly agrees.

After purchasing toy guns, spray paint, energy drinks and ski masks for the robbery, Nick suggests stealing Chet's family friend's Datsun 280ZX so that the police will be unable to track the license plate number of Nick's Mustang. Nick then stops by his workplace to tell off his boss and quit, then goes to see Kate and say some cryptic 'final' words to her. Nick and Chet go to the bank, hold it up and obtain money upon forcing a bank employee named Sandra (Rebecca Cox) to empty the vault. The bag of money, rigged with a dye pack, accidentally explodes inside the bank, and Chet forces Sandra to get another bag of money. Meanwhile, the bank manager has pulled the alarm, forcing Nick and Chet to flee quickly as Dwayne and Travis, outside, watch the commotion. A police officer arrives, but when Nick shows him the bomb vest, he runs away. More police arrive, and after a car chase that ends up with Nick and Chet crashing the 280ZX, the two successfully evade capture by sneaking onto a city bus. Nick calls Dwayne and tells him he has the money. Dwayne says he and Travis will meet him at an abandoned rail-yard to make the exchange. Dwayne and Travis go to a restaurant instead. When Dwayne asks Travis to be the one to detonate the bomb if the time comes, Travis starts to become unsettled.

After getting his Mustang, Nick waits for Dwayne and Travis at the rail-yard while Chet hides nearby to avoid disclosing his involvement in the scheme. Instead of Dwayne and Travis however, Juicy and the hit-man Chango (Michael Peña) are the ones who arrive to pick up the money. Nick hands Chango the money and expects Chango to give him the code which will deactivate the bomb. Chango claims he doesn't know what the code is. When Nick keeps asking him for the code, Chango gets aggravated and holds Nick at gunpoint. Chet runs in and beat down Chango with a metal bar while Nick incapacitates Juicy. The two grab the money and escape.

Dwayne ends up getting two phone calls: one from Chango calling to let Dwayne know that because of Chet's ambush, he will be coming after Dwayne instead. The second is from Nick, who berates Dwayne for not giving Chango the code to the bomb, and dares him to detonate the bomb with the money at his side. Overly frustrated by these turn of events, Dwayne activates the speed dial number on his phone for the bomb to explode, but finds that Travis altered the numbers while Dwayne wasn't looking because he was getting nervous about Dwayne's gradually violent attitude. Rethinking their plan, the two head to Kate's apartment in their masks and kidnap her. Dwayne calls Nick to let him know that he has Kate and if he doesn't meet at the scrapyard to give him the money, he will kill her. Meanwhile, Chango breaks into the Major's house to find information regarding Dwayne's location and finds a hand-drawn map to the scrapyard. While there, the Major attacks him with a pen gun and is shot in the stomach by Chango after a struggle.

Nick arrives at the scrapyard and exchanges the money for Kate. Dwayne gives Nick the code (which is 69 69 69) to deactivate and unbuckle the bomb with just minutes to spare. Dwayne then tells Nick to walk away, but Nick deduces that as soon as Nick and Kate turn around, they will just both be killed . Dwayne confirms this by pointing a gun at them while Travis comes out wielding a homemade gas flamethrower. Nick says he hired a sniper in case this were to happen. This is faked, as it is only Chet using a laser pointer, but it convinces Dwayne and Travis into lowering their weapons, and they both unmask themselves in frustration. Chango suddenly arrives and knocks Nick out cold, then spots Dwayne and Travis. Despite handing him the money, Chango holds the two at gun point and is going to shoot them, but Travis responds by torching Chango with the flamethrower. Although burning to death, Chango manages to shoot Dwayne in the shoulder and shoot the fuel tank for the flamethrower, causing it to explode on Travis's back. Nick recovers, grabs the money and drives away with Chet and Kate. Still alive, Dwayne reconciles with Travis upon putting out the flames on him before heading off to pursue the money. Dwayne catches up to the others with his van, and threatens them, but then hears a beeping sound and the van explodes. Nick reveals that as he grabbed the money, he reactivated the bomb and threw it into the back of the van. Now free with the money in their possession, the three drive off discussing what to do with their newly acquired windfall, but discover the money has, again, been rigged with dye that explodes onto Chet, with a little bit hitting Kate in the face too.

In a post-credits scene, Dwayne, Travis, the Major, and Juicy are all shown to be alive and well in an advertisement for their new family business, "Major Tan: Tanning Salon."

Alternate Ending [edit]

In the alternate ending, Nick, Chet and Kate drive off with the money and discuss what they will do with their newfound riches. Meanwhile, just miles behind them, Dwayne is revealed to have survived the explosion that occurred moments earlier. Annoyed with his plan's failure, he goes to his father's mansion to see if Chango killed him. Dwayne finds his dad on the floor suffering from his gunshot wound and tells about his plans for the tanning salon/brothel. His father is excited and tells his son that he is proud of him. The final scene is at the Four Seasons in Atlanta, where Kate is managing the special events program. She joins up with Nick and Chet, who are chilling out by the pool enjoying their new lives. In addition to this, Chango has been blamed for the bank robbery, so all is well.

Cast [edit]

Production [edit]

Filming took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from July to September 2010; and a bank robbery scene was filmed at the vacant Ludington State Bank building—most recently a Fifth Third Bank—on James St. in Ludington, Michigan.[2] The film's screenplay was written by Matthew Sullivan and Michael Diliberti,[3] and the film was produced by Ben Stiller, through his production company, Red Hour Films.[4][5] The film was released on August 12, 2011.[6][7][8]

Promotion [edit]

A screening of the film took place at the 2011 San Diego Comic Con with actors Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Michael Peña and director Ruben Fleischer.[9]

Soundtrack [edit]

There are at least 8 songs in the soundtrack for 30 Minutes or Less:

Reception [edit]

Critical response [edit]

30 Minutes or Less has received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 45% based on reviews from 156 critics, with a rating average of 5.3 out of 10. The site's consensus is, "It's sporadically funny and it benefits from a talented cast, but 30 Minutes or Less suffers from a disjointed narrative, and too often mistakes crude gags for true lowbrow humor".[10] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 49% based on 37 reviews.[11]

[icon] This section requires expansion. (March 2013)

N Pfeifer[who?] from FleshEatingZipper was more favorable: "With [Fleischer and Eisenberg] involved, you figure it’s going to be impossible for this movie to live up to the marketing’s hype. While not the best work from either, [it's] still an enjoyably vulgar romp."[12]

Box office [edit]

The film grossed an estimated $13 million in its first weekend, below studio expectations but not a loss due to the film's relatively low budget. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 29, 2011 with Our Idiot Brother.[13] It was released on September 16, 2011 in the United Kingdom.[14]

Similarity to real-life events [edit]

The plot of the film bears a striking resemblance to a real-life bank heist gone wrong.[15] On August 28, 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Douglas Wells entered a bank in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bomb strapped to his neck.[16] As police approached Wells, the bomb detonated, killing him. Wells had similar motives and was surrounded with people who strongly resemble characters depicted in the motion picture.[15] Despite the similarities to the case, the cast and filmmakers claimed to have had no prior knowledge of the incident, although the screenwriters have admitted to being "vaguely aware" of it for legal purposes.[17]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Kaufman, Amy (August 11, 2011). "Movie Projector: 'Apes' likely to swing higher than 'The Help'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 11, 2011. 
  2. ^ "Ludington's James St. Old Kent Bank to Be Setting for Upcoming Ben Stiller Produced Film". Ludington Daily News. August 2010. Retrieved August 18, 2010. 
  3. ^ "Aziz Ansari cast in Ruben Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less film inspired by real events". /Film. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  4. ^ "30 Minutes or Less (2011) – ComingSoon.net"
  5. ^ "Ben Stiller-produced movie". Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  6. ^ "Fred Ward joins 30 Minutes or Less". InsideMovies.com. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  7. ^ "MovieWeb – 30 Minutes or Less"
  8. ^ "Fred Ward to play a dad again in 30 Minutes or Less". Hollywood.com. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
  9. ^ "Free Tickets to the 30 MINUTES OR LESS Comic-Con Screening Featuring Q&A With Ansari, Swardson, Pena and Fleischer". Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
  10. ^ "30 Minutes or Less (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved August 11, 2011. 
  11. ^ "30 Minutes or Less Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 11, 2011. 
  12. ^ "Movie Review: 30 Minutes or Less". FleshEatingZipper. Retrieved August 31, 2011. 
  13. ^ "Weekend Report: 'Apes' Cling to Top Spot, 'Help' Cleans Up". Box Office Mojo. IMDB.com. Retrieved August 14, 2011. 
  14. ^ "30 Minutes or Less | UK Cinema Release Date". 
  15. ^ a b Watercutter, Angela (August 12, 2011). "Compare and Contrast: 30 Minutes or Less vs. Collar-Bomb Caper". Wired. Retrieved August 12, 2011. 
  16. ^ Schapiro, Richard (December 27, 2010). "The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist". Wired. Archived from the original on June 27, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2011. 
  17. ^ Emami, Gazelle (August 7, 2011). "'30 Minutes Or Less': Pizza Bomber Movie Too Close To Home For Family Of Real Pizza Bomber Tragedy". Huffington Post. Retrieved August 8, 2011. 

External links [edit]

Films directed by Ruben Fleischer
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