Synopsis:
Two wannabe-elite criminal's kidnap a pizza boy and strap a bomb to his chest. If he doesn't get hold of $100'000 within 10 hours then... well... you can guess where this is going.
Firstly allow me to
apologise for the lack of posts recently... been hard at work with
deadlines but thankfully it's a few weeks until my exam so I'm
finding plenty of time to catch up with my film watching. There are a
pile of DVD's just sat on my shelf collecting dust so I thought what
better way to procrastinate than to hit these flicks and take a quick
break from revision. There are plenty I felt like watching, and I'll
get round to them in time but there was one that I never got round
too, 30 Minutes or Less. Now I don't know why, the trailer
looked good, I like the actors, but everyday I'd walk past the case
thinking to myself “I'll give that a watch soon” just never
getting round to it. Unfortunately there was always a film I was more
keen on seeing, or more in the mood for. I suppose the marketing
behind it wasn't great to begin with as I doubt many others new this
film existed, or if they did they don't remember much about it. But I
had hope, and before I picked up another film to throw in the DVD
player I thought “why not? Lets get this out of the way”.
Probably not the best state of mind to go into a film with but I was
confident it would be enjoyable, I'm a fan of Zombieland, and
this is the same director, it'll be great right?
Wrong. That's not to
say you won't be entertained, I just thought it came off incredibly
average. But in a weird sense. I found the two protagonists to have
great chemistry together, but when conflict is shown between them you
never really get that feeling that they were really arguing. It felt
more like (and I hate this word) banter. You can tell they're trying
hard to convey that they're generally pissed off with each other and
whether it's the fault of the director or the actors, you just don't
feel that emotion. At one point the early on things start getting
very serious when they both admit to betraying the other, but I
couldn't even tell they were upset until they started physically
fighting, and even that was a play fight type bout. I understand that
this is a comedy, and things can't be taken too seriously but when
the emotion and tone is so constant it's makes it difficult for the
audience to relate or even understand.
But as mentioned, this
is a comedy. Thankfully here the film prevails. I've noticed a lot of
hate towards Danny McBride. It's understandable, he normally gets
lumped with a rather perverse role, and whether or not he's going
after these roles he's building up a reputation that will be
difficult for him to shake. With that said he is a good actor. The
man's got timing, what more do you want from a man who is supposed to
make you laugh? One issue for the future is that I hope he gets the
role of a less erotically charged character, as you can see the same
character's that he's played before popping up here and there.
Thankfully his delivery is flawless and is probably the driving force
of the film. Give him a chance already, but give him something more
interesting to do.
I'm not going to state
this as the funniest film of the year but if you don't chuckle at
least once then quite frankly you don't have a soul. But in truth
this isn't going to win any awards as it does fall a bit flat. The
first half of the film was fairly tedious and what the makers
probably expected to be hilarious will probably only drag out a
chuckle. But the pace is good, once you get past the initial
character set-up which is fairly bland and generic. I suppose pace
would be important though giving the countdown element of the film.
Jesse Eisenberg is a great casting choice as you're always going to
route for him, along with his insecure yet more successful friend who
has been dragged into this situation. The way they go about their
mission is brilliantly awkward and its a shame the direction wasn't
there to bring it up to it's full potential.
Overview:
A good effort, but not
enough. You'll chuckle and enjoy it, but it lacks impact, something
that a comedy has to have for it to stand out, where as this will
unfortunately drift into nothingness. Watch it if nothing else is on
but don't expect to be bawling your eyes out with laughter.
Rating:
★★★
No comments:
Post a Comment