30 Minutes or Less @ Alamo Drafthouse

Aug 10, 2011 by Shelby    6 Comments    Posted under: Austin-tatious Events, Chick Flick Picks, Chickster Crush

Thanks to the folks at Ain’t It Cool News, I got a chance to catch a sneak preview of “30 Minutes or Less” last month at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. And what made it even better was that one of the film’s stars, Jesse Eisenberg, was in attendance to introduce the movie and talk about it afterward.

I’ve been a fan of Jesse Eisenberg’s work since I first saw him back in 2003 in the criminally underseen “Roger Dodger”. Since then, I’ve loved his work in “The Squid and the Whale,” “Solitary Man,” “Zombieland,” “The Social Network” and “Adventureland,” the latter of which is one of my favorite movies of the past few years.

Now “30 Minutes or Less” has been added to that list. Reteaming Eisenberg with his “Zombieland” director Ruben Fleischer, this action comedy is the tight, fast and fun ride that I felt like “Pineapple Express” was trying to be. In “30 Minutes or Less,” Danny McBride, who played memorable roles in both this film and “Pineapple Express,” and comedian Nick Swardson strap a bomb to Jesse Eisenberg’s pizza delivery boy and force him to rob a bank. And the hilarious Aziz Ansari (“Parks and Recreation”‘s Tom Haverford, who calls forks “food rakes”) plays Eisenberg’s best friend. What I loved about this movie was that it puts real characters in extraordinary, and often really funny, situations, but the characters play it entirely straight, which makes it so believable. When Eisenberg’s Nick realizes the full implications of having a bomb strapped to his chest, shit gets real. There is no winking at the audience, because these are real people, dealing with this situation as we might.

With all the bloat of this summer’s movie season, “30 Minutes or Less” goes down like a cold draft beer that leaves you refreshed. The film opens this Friday at the Alamo Drafthouse and around the Austin area. Check out the trailer:

In the intro and the Q&A after the screening, Jesse Eisenberg was witty and verbose and wonderful. Several audience members also had the opportunity to meet him earlier in the day when he was slinging pizzas over at Home Slice on South Congress (see photo from The Daily Texan below), and he acknowledged them, remembering their names and what they had talked about, which was just as impressive as his adorable recent McSweeneys piece titled “A Post Gender Normative Man Tries to Pick Up A Woman at a Bar.”

From The Daily Texan: http://www.dailytexanonline.com

And while he was at the Alamo Drafthouse, theater management discussed their no talking policy with him to mixed results.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

6 Comments + Add Comment

• 
  Doug August 10, 2011 at 2:16 pm

  I was just thinking about Adventureland the other day while watching Kristen Stewart in The Yellow Handkerchief. TYH is good, but not as good as Adventureland. There’s something about Kristen…I hear she’s strange and in an interview I heard she came across as very dim, but she sure plays an adorable strange girl on the big screen. Glad you liked 30 Minutes, Shelby. I’ll put it on the list for one of my rare theater excursions. Although after going to the Violet Crown over the weekend, I may make it to the movies more frequently.
• 
  Shelby August 11, 2011 at 11:51 am

  I haven’t heard anything about The Yellow Handkerchief. I’ll have to check it out. And this reminds me that we need to do a Violet Crown review. Although I may have the dissenting opinion among us….
• 
  Doug August 11, 2011 at 10:00 pm

  I think you’ll like it. I dvr’d it a few weeks ago and decided to watch it over the weekend. Other than the 3 stars the tv directory gave it, I didn’t know a thing about it except that I have a thing for Kristen. I just read Roger Ebert’s review to see if he would validate my favorable impression of the movie. He did. “A red neck slice of life,” is how he put it. If you do watch the movie, you’ll also be amazed to know that the Gordy character is played by a Brit who went to Eton and is a veteran of Shakespeare. Ohhh, I just remembered you’re an anglophile…I was also pleased to learn that Ebert also thinks Kristen is a good actress. I think her rep is bad because of those Twilight movies. Now I’m going to have to check her out in Welcome to the Rileys, another film I’ve never heard of. She plays a runaway working as a hooker in New Orleans. Not sure how I could miss hearing about that one.
• 
  Shelby August 15, 2011 at 10:10 am

  Thanks for the rec! I’m going to see if the library has it. And yes, I know the Brit you’re talking about – Eddie Redmayne. He’s in the epic middle ages miniseries The Pillars of the Earth, which is a bit melodramatic at times, but still really moving. I recommend it. Let us know if you like Welcome to the Rileys!
• 
  Doug August 15, 2011 at 9:51 pm

  I will let you know. And you, Shelby…did you ever take those long drives and listen to the FF interviews?

  That Eddie R. is quite the actor.
• 
  Shelby August 17, 2011 at 9:55 am

  Yes, I did! Thank you again! I loved hearing how they’ve changed over the past 10 years. The fact that these awesome rock stars are husbands and dads now makes me happy. Have you had a chance to watch the FF doc yet?