30 Minutes Or Less would have you believe this is cut from the same cloth as 80's action cinema. After all the characters spend all their time watching DVDs like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and quoting Point Break as their inspiration. You've also got a structure which follows two (yes two) mismatched buddies as one pair trick the second pair into robbing a bank. Finally it's clearly striving for that balance between crime thriller and comedy that the original Beverly Hills Cop managed so well back in 1984.
It fails. 30 Minutes is likable, well cast (hey, it's got the great Fred Ward for God's sake), short in duration and has a high concept to die for. But it's neither a great thriller nor a great comedy...something Eddie Murphy's star vehicle achieved in truck loads. You can see it's trying to be witty, smart and original...much as director Ruben Fleischer's Zombieland was a few years back...but it never quite gets up to those lofty levels. Not bad though.
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