Comedies about layabouts and losers are becoming more common, and as a result more outlandish. This is true of the plot of 30 Minutes or Less: Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson) need $100,000 to pay a Mexican assassin to kill Dwayne’s rich father in order to get his inheritance money. To this end, they use a bomb-jacket to employ unwilling accomplice Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) to rob a bank, who in turn requests the aid of his school-teacher friend Chet (Aziz Ansari). Hilarity ensues.

The film comes from the mind of Ruben Fleischer, the man who gave us Zombieland, and that should indicate the type of humour that runs throughout, crude but sharp and clever as evidenced by the delightfully quippy dialogue. However, a large amount of this dialogue was communicated via shouting. Due to the absurdity of the plot, this makes sense, but is fairly hit and miss in regards to comedy.  Equally contrived was the chemistry between characters. The two protagonists, Nick and Chet, have a spat, and over the course of the absurd events that follow,  stereotypically recover their relationship. Throw in a tired romantic subplot and you have a one of the least engaging films in theatres right now.

In comedies this hackneyed, one at least hopes the actors can save it. However, the acting wasn’t original. Eisenberg and McBride retained their roles as the awkward and jerk screw-ups from films such as Adventureland and Your Highness respectively. Even if these performances were enjoyable, they were too formulaic. Astoundingly, Ansari seemed to be doing even less work as he played himself. Fred Ward’s near-insane Vietnam War veteran, The Major, was one of the few good performances.

The film is nothing new, but is at least entertaining.  Any fans of this sort of comedy, Zombieland, Pineapple Express etc., should probably indulge it, but be aware this is the lesser of all those films.