Director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) and screenwriter Michael Diliberti deliver all the fun of watching two dumb-asses in apesuits screw up a get-rich caper of locking a bomb vest on a pizza-delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) to make him rob a bank so they can hire a hitman to kill a lottery-winner and inherit enough to open a tanning studio to front a prostitution operation. Set and shot in Grand Rapids, “30 Minutes or Less” is a good-buddy, bad-buddy deal that’s put together with enough smart lines, including one about “The Hurt Locker” on a Netflix queue, and clever plot complications, to set it apart from the run of dumber action-comedies. Fleischer claims the script grafted the likes of John Landis and the Coen Brothers. His hybrid yields a half bushel of late summer laughs. With Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Bianca Kajlich, Michael Peña, Fred Ward. 87m. (Bill Stamets)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Fine Line: A Review Of Shortcomings It's a season for the comeuppance of a curmudgeon in Randall Park's smart, biting "Shortcomings," adapted by Adrian Tomine from his graphic novel of the same name.
Director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) and screenwriter Michael Diliberti deliver all the fun of watching two dumb-asses in apesuits screw up a get-rich caper of locking a bomb vest on a pizza-delivery guy (Jesse Eisenberg) to make him rob a bank so they can hire a hitman to kill a lottery-winner and inherit enough to open a tanning studio to front a prostitution operation. Set and shot in Grand Rapids, “30 Minutes or Less” is a good-buddy, bad-buddy deal that’s put together with enough smart lines, including one about “The Hurt Locker” on a Netflix queue, and clever plot complications, to set it apart from the run of dumber action-comedies. Fleischer claims the script grafted the likes of John Landis and the Coen Brothers. His hybrid yields a half bushel of late summer laughs. With Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Bianca Kajlich, Michael Peña, Fred Ward. 87m. (Bill Stamets)
