30 Minutes or Less – review

Jesse Eisenberg goes into Harold-and-Kumar mode without the drugs for this extremely watchable and funny thriller-farce directed by Ruben Fleischer, who made the similarly likable and free-wheeling Zombieland. Eisenberg plays Nick, an overeducated, self-hating loser with a terrible job delivering pizzas at breakneck speed in his abysmal car. Meanwhile, a loathsome brute called Dwayne and his beta-male hanger-on Travis (exquisitely played by Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) need $100,000 for a hitman to whack Dwayne's lottery-millionaire dad so that they can be really rich; they kidnap poor Nick and terrify him into robbing a bank to get them their hundred Gs. Nick ropes his nerdy teacher friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) into the plan and they discover that his experience at facing down kids makes him pretty good at intimidating bank tellers, and Nick's pizza-delivery skills make him a useful getaway driver. It's entirely ridiculous, but it gallops cheerfully along; everything is carried off with flair and ingenuity.