Hands down the most entertaining panel at Comic-con was the one with the cast for the upcoming comedy, 30 Minutes or Less, which stars Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson and Michael Pena. That cast right there should scream comedy gold and let me start by saying it doesn’t disappoint. The film which is directed by the now fanboy craved Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), is loosely based on an actual event about a guy who was kidnapped, had a bomb strapped to his neck and forced to rob a bank for $250,000.
In the film, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a small town pizza delivery guy who hates his job and has had a pretty dysfunctional life thus far. He lives with his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) who also has a twin sister Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria) who Nick has strong feelings for. On his last delivery of the night, Nick ends up getting kidnapped and having a bomb strapped to his chest by two wanna-be criminals, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis ( Nick Swardson). Nick is told that he has 24 hours to come up with $100,000 so that Dwayne can pay a hit man named Chango (Michael Pena) to kill his father so that Dwayne can get his inheritance and open his Tanning Salon/Brothel. Nick enlists the help of Chet to help him rob a bank and get his life back before time runs out, but things don’t end up going as smoothly as everyone originally hoped.
The film is non-stop laughter fest from beginning to end and we learned during Comic-con that a lot of the film was actually improv despite having some hilarious dialogue in the script. It was definitely the improv that really lifted this film to its full potential. By far, without Ansari, the film would not have been as funny as it was. He steals the spotlight in the film with his direct and sarcastic comments that he is so famously known for. The film is very short, which was kind of disappointing, running right around an hour and twenty minutes or so, but you can’t really blame them because there is only so much you can do with a story such as this. The crude humor is brought to the film by McBride and Swardson (Shocker!), but I feel out of the criminals it was Pena who is the true bad-ass. Pena has this lisp that just makes his hit-man character that much funnier and enjoyable. Not only is he a stone cold killer and pimp, but it seems that he also has a sensitive side as well.
Overall, the film was a hit and everyone in the theater was laughing non-stop. Now this could be because the 
entire cast besides Eisenberg and McBride were in attendance, but regardless I thought it was great. One thing that could of been left out was the relationship between Nick and Kate. Now, I will admit that I kind of have a TV crush on Dilshad Vadsaria (Greek) so anytime I can see her on either TV or film it’s a plus, but her role in the film really wasn’t needed. The reason is because in the first part of the film they build a lot of tension and romance between her and Nick only to go nowhere with it by the end of the film. It seemed like they needed something as a filler to extend the length of the film so they decided to add this romance into it. Don’t get me wrong, it does result in some hilarious situations but it really wasn’t needed.
With that being said, I recommend everyone go out and get a great laugh next weekend by seeing 30 Minutes or Less. It’s funny, entertaining, emotional and suspenseful so why wouldn’t you want to see it? Is it the funnest movie ever? No, but it’s pretty entertaining and well worth the price of admission.
As a special treat, I was able to record the entire panel session at Comic-Con for the film which includes Swardson, Ansari, Pena and Fleischer. McBride wasn’t able to make it because he was filming season three of HBO’s Eastbound and Down, but he did provide the fans in Hall H with a nice little video of himself. Check it out below and watch for Ansari go off on the douchebag moderator who should never be allowed to do a panel again because he sucked so much!
Rating: Great cast, cleaver story and chock full of laughs (8.5/10)
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