The pizza is delivered on time, but can the same be said about the laughs?

Comedy can blend with just about anything: romance, horror, and even drama. So it shouldn't be a surprise that it can make a harmonious pair with action. It's foolproof in most cases, putting two popular genres together in a neat package. So it was a no-brainer to hire Ruben Fleischer to direct the fast-paced action-comedy 30 Minutes or Less, since he also directed the equally fast-moving and funny Zombieland from two years ago. In both cases, he had to deliver the goods in less than an hour and a half. Unfortunately for Fleischer, he had a hit, and now a miss.

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) is a down-on-his-luck teen who hates his job as a pizza delivery boy; but nonetheless is masterful in the skills of driving and drifting his car through the streets to deliver to his customers. After having a fight with his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari), Nick is even worse off than before. Elsewhere in town, two amateur crooks, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson), devise a plan to obtain Dwayne's inheritance from his military-toughened father. To do this, they need money to hire an assassin to commit the violent act. They decide to kidnap Nick, strap a bomb-vest to him, and force him to rob a bank within 10 hours. So he quickly reconciles with Chet, and the two friends set out on their robbery, and face more obstacles than they could have expected.

Eisenberg and Ansari are ripe in comedic experience, with the former starring in films such as Adventureland and Zombieland, and the latter starring in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. At first, it's entertaining to watch these two as best friends hanging out and living on pizza and beer. But after a scene where they have a scuffle and reveal things that they've done to each other in the past that the other doesn't know about, it gets to the point where they are not all that likable anymore. It's tough to believe that they remain friends after the truth is let out. Even the pairing of McBride and Swardson isn't as riotously funny as it should be, seeing as they are always a hit with their television shows. The only bright spot of the cast is Michael Pena as the hot-blooded hired assassin Chongo, who has the attitude-appropriate nickname, " The Satanic Hispanic."

The film's chief fault is with the script, which reduces the talents of the four main characters to bland sex jokes and colorless banter. After everything the characters go through, the ending will be hard for some to accept, since it stretches it's believability. Even though the film is fairly short, that's not an excuse to shortchange the audience out of laughs. The film's energy only spikes during the bank robbery and the last 10 minutes, and both scenes only manage to summon a few chuckles. But after that, we're left wondering why the rest of the movie didn't have that same force. If only the drive and humor of 30 Minutes or Less was as punctual as their title.

Final grade: C