'30 Minutes or Less' Sees Humor in Gruesome Bomb Death Is the movie's plot too much like a real crime?
In August 2003, a group of Pennsylvania bank robbers strapped a bomb to the chest of pizza delivery man Brian Wells, who then walked into a bank and handed the teller a note demanding $250,000. In less than an hour, the bomb detonated, killing Wells right in front of police and TV camera crews. It's one of the strangest crimes in U.S. history, and it's also the inspiration for a new comedy, 30 Minutes or Less, hitting theaters next week. Basing a movie on the bizarre robbery is one thing, but a raucous comedy? That seems a bit awkward. And as the debut nears, the awkwardness has only increased. Just this week, a masked man reportedly broke into a wealthy Australian family's home and strapped a fake bomb to their 18-year-old daughter's neck as part of an extortion attempt. That event sparked a Today writer to ask if 30 Minutes or Less is "the creepiest movie of the year." What do you think? Was it a bad idea to base a comedy on a real death, even if investigators later found that Wells was almost certainly involved in the heist? Or should it just be viewed the same as any other film in Hollywood's long litany of comedies centered around robberies, abductions and even murders?
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