30 Minutes or Less 2011

Tom Long, Detroit News: It's a bit like the Three Stooges on crack -- nutty, loud, profane and full of laughs. It won't change your life and it might hurt your ears, but it should keep you smiling. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It has a miserable start - well, it has a miserable middle, too. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: It's punchy, nasty, laugh-out-loud-funny stuff that doesn't flag or wear out its welcome. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Sometimes a rude and crude comedy is simply scraping the bottom of the barrel, despite the efforts of a talent like Mr. Eisenberg and of second bananas like Mr. Ansari and Mr. Swardson. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: It's hard to hate a movie that affectionately references the oeuvre of Kathryn Bigelow (both The Hurt Locker and Point Break!) and uses a whiny Third Eye Blind ballad as an acidic punch line. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: 30 Minutes wallows in stupidity without making the bromance bonds believable. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: If only it were 30 minutes or less. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The only consistent laughs come from Michael Pena's eccentric hired killer, the movie's one character who seems like someone we haven't seen a million times before. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: A film that climaxes with a trade-off in a junkyard has a rich appreciation for the cliches of the action-comedy genre, but 30 Minutes Or Less is ultimately so muddled and slight that's it's hard to ascertain what the filmmakers were thinking. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The film wallows in such abject stupidity for big chunks of time that the talents of such actors as Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride and Nick Swardson are largely wasted. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The film contains a remarkable level of violence, yet never establishes a tone that would make it seem funny or truly shocking; the jokes flounder in an air of half-hearted spite. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The movie ends up being just sharp enough at its peaks to be frustrating in its valleys. But the laughs are there. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: This is disappointing news, given that the director of this sputter-rev-sputter ride is Ruben Fleischer​ and that nattering Jesse Eisenberg stars. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: 30 Minutes shouldn't work. But it does. A stoner movie without the spliff smoke, it's proudly, sexually lewd with no cushion of boyish sweetness. Read more

Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: Even if the film had been 30 minutes or less, this comedy would still be too long. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: 30 Minutes or Less is slight and not exactly memorable, but it moves quickly and has some surprising twists and top-notch performances all around. Not bad for a disposable late-summer comedy. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: It never reconciles the meticulous intelligence needed to build the weaponry and the monstrous stupidity needed to use it. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The film's running time and sudden ending suggest a desperate last-minute edit to cut anything that wasn't working. They stopped too soon. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: At a mere 83 minutes, 30 Minutes or Less might seem able to deliver on the promise of its zippy title. Instead, this slackers-go-gangsta comedy demonstrates that less than 90 minutes can be a very long time. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A darkly comic underachiever that manages to charm almost in spite of itself, Ruben Fleischer's "30 Minutes or Less" is probably best watched as it was made: without much evident effort. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: "30 Minutes or Less" may be tasteless, moronic and lacking in any redeeming social value whatsoever. But for me, at least, it was gut-bustingly funny -- perhaps this waning summer season's ultimate guilty pleasure. Read more

Meghan Keane, New York Observer: Probably has the approximate cultural staying power of its title. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The movie claims to be only 83 minutes long, but it's the longest 83 minutes to come along in quite awhile. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The dark, biting comedy often strays into territory that can be categorized as politically incorrect, but the result is funny, engaging, and at times a little disconcerting. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: I had decent hopes for this high-concept, low-brow comedy; those hopes were quickly dashed. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Moral of the story: If you occupy the demographic that this film is aimed at, Hollywood doesn't have a very high opinion of you. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: 30 Minutes or Less is all about the zigzagging rush of the ride. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: I ran out of patience, even by August standards, way before the movie was over. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Either it goes for a particular tone and doesn't achieve it. Or it does achieve a tone that's not really worth striving for. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: None of this crackles with the kind of breezy, madcap hilarity that it should; it's actually rather tortured and convoluted. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: One of the great disappointments of my cinematic year so far. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: How disappointing to see Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and his "Zombieland" director, Ruben Fleischer, reunited in a low-rent slob comedy. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Something similar actually happened once, but the result wasn't funny. Neither is "30 Minutes or Less," although it smirks like it thinks so. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: The movie belongs to Ansari, who steals nearly every scene he is in with his jangly, nervous intensity. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: From the premise to the performances, everything and everybody just seems to be trying way too hard. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: For a soul-sucking 83 minutes, you're trapped inside the film's tiny, ugly mind. Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: It's funny, clever and pacy to a fault, and the script more than satisfies its quota of decent zings. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: In a year lousy with badly written movies filled with phallic fixations, it's a relief to watch one that is happy to be rude good fun without excessive raunch. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Clocking in at a mercifully short 83 minutes, pic spares us the endless ad-libbing, but isn't nearly as tight as its title implies. Read more

Seth Colter Walls, Village Voice: Like his latest, Fleischer's Zombieland borrowed plenty of genre tropes, but paid them back with a self-aware wink. 30 Minutes or Less just takes the money and runs. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Beholding Eisenberg in Fleischer's relentlessly vulgar and un-funny "30 Minutes or Less" is akin to watching a ring-tested champion punch far below his weight. What a comedown. Read more