Meet the free, proud, independent people of Ukraine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzNxLzFfR5w Nothing but reviews. In excess.
From ZERO to 6 ♥s. 100% ad-free. Run on pure love for movies, documentaries and TV-series. June 2025: Countdown to: Top 10: Best horror comedy movies - Upcoming review: There's Still Tomorrow (2023)
+ Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Dark Comedy of the Year
Two questionable mall cops pose like idiots on this poster for Jody Hill's Observe and Report
Ronnie is a mall cop, and it is a job that he carries out with what is perhaps a somewhat exaggerated sense of responsibility. His mother drinks; his flame Brandi from cosmetics is uninterested in him; but then Ronnie gains a much-wanted enemy - in the guise of a chubby flasher.
Observe and Report is written and directed by Jody Hill (The Foot Fist Way (2006)).
Hill and co-star and protagonist Seth Rogen's (Steve Jobs (2015)) dark, transgressive male-centric, crude humor lies heavily over Observe and Report, as it relies on laughing at (and not with) its team of dumb loser characters.
But the film is also a ton of laughs, especially in the most absurd scenes, SPOILER as when Ronnie shoots the flasher.
[Observe and Report premiered 16 March (South by Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas) and runs 86 minutes. Shooting took place from April - June 2008 in New Mexico. It opened #4, behind fellow new release Hannah Montana: The Movie and holdover hits Fast & Furious and Monsters vs. Aliens, to an 11 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 24 mil. $ (89.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 1 mil. $ (3.7 %) and Australia with 912k $ (3.4 %). Hill returned with a short and 2 TV credits prior to his theatrical return, The Legacy of a Whitehall Deer Hunter (2018, VoD). Rogen returned in Family Guy (2009, TV-series) and theatrically in Funny People (2009); Michael Peña (The Mule (2018)) in My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done (2009). Observe and Report is rotten at 51 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
The stupid-looking cast of Ruben Fleischer's 30 Minutes or Less are on display on its explosion-lined poster
A pizza delivery guy with a talent for racing has a fallout with his best friend about boning his friend's sister many years ago. Meanwhile, two unemployed idiots, who are just waiting for the one's US marine major dad (who is also a lottery winner) to die, so he can inherit his approximately 1 million $, get the idea to get rid of the healthy geezer before his time to speed things up. A hitman will cost them 100,000 $, they learn, so to get that, they kidnap the pizza guy, strap a bomb to his chest and force him to rob a bank. - What could go wrong?
30 Minutes or Less is written by Michael Diliberti (Stop-Loss (2008, associate producer)) and Matthew Sullivan (The Comedy Garage (2011)) and directed by great Washingtonian filmmaker Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland (2009)).
There are several problems with 30 Minutes or Less. One is its title, which is merely the motto of the pizza company, and doesn't really play any active part in the film. It is a bad sign, when movie-writers get their title from a pretty unrelated pizza motto. Another problem is that the two groups of main characters should have been more different from each other. As it is, the two scheming idiots are really idiots, (one indication is that they are continually working on understanding how to use the 'that's what she said'-joke), and the two other guys, who I guess we should relate more to as audiences, (this would have been a good idea at least), are nevertheless also pretty idiotic. We don't get to know them, before they start arguing and fighting, and that continues pretty much throughout the film. It only lasts about 80 minutes, so there would have been plenty of room for at least 10-15 minutes of getting to know and like these characters, before they go clawing at each other. But no. None of that here. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale (2005)) plays the pizza delivery guy, the protagonist of the film, but I didn't relate to him at all. SPOILER: The most important part of this character's development is that he decides to confront his falling in love with his best friend's sister after they had sex at graduation 8 years prior, and now decides to go for her. What important procrastination had taken his attention off from this for 8 years is never delved into. - Delivering pizzas, it seems. Eisenberg gets annoying a few times here by being brainy and stupid at the same time. Aziz Ansari (Parks and Recreation (2009-2013)) plays his best friend, and he is unfortunately not as funny as could have been hoped. Danny McBride (Pineapple Express (2008)) and Nick Swardson (Bolt (2008)) are the giant idiots, and they are funny most of the time. There's a good many laughable lines in 30 Minutes, and together with the cast which do what they can, they save the poorly conceived film from total ruin.It ends very abruptly, confirming that it is a small, goofy, and somewhat confused potluck of a movie. It will appeal mostly to younger, male audiences.
Cost: 28 mil. $ Box office: 40.6 mil. $ = Big flop (returned 1.45 times its cost)
[30 Minutes or Less was released 11 August (Antilles and Aruba) and runs 83 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2010 in Michigan. The plot bears strong resemblance to the strange case of Brian Wells, a Pennsylvania pizza delivery guy who died from an explosive tied to his neck after robbing a bank in order to get funds to hire a hitman. The film opened #5, behind holdover hit Rise of the Planet of the Apes, fellow new releases The Help and Final Destination 5 and holdover hit The Smurfs, to a 13.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 37 mil. $ (91.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 1.3 mil. $ (3.2 %) and the UK with 872k $ (2.2 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. Fleischer returned with Escape My Life (2012, TV-series) and theatrically with Gangster Squad (2013). Eisenberg returned in Why Stop Now? (2012); McBride in Good Vibes (2011, TV-series), The Roadie (2012, short) and theatrically in As I Lay Dying (2013). 30 Minutes or Less is rotten at 44 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
