Tim and Erics Billion Dollar Movie (2012)

Genre: Comedy

Stars: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Robert Loggia

Sinopsis: Two guys get a billion dollars to make a movie, only to watch their dream run off course. In order to make the money back, they then attempt to revitalize a failing shopping mall.

Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1855401/ 

Tim & Erics Billion Dollar Movie

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Review : My wife and I are big T&E fans... I'll admit that I'm a much bigger fan than my wife, but we both love their work on TGTTM and T&EASGJ!, not to mention the many other pies they have their fingers in. I have watched every episode of the aforementioned shows so many times that I'm surprised that there's room for anything in my brain *aside* from Tim and Eric quotes at this point.

Now that B$M is out, the Internets are filling with 5- or 10-star reviews from other fellow fans. So I guess I'll be the first to say that we were both a little let down by the movie.

A lot of folks have commented that this is "just like Awesome Show." I agree and disagree, and on both fronts it's not necessarily a 100% good thing. A great number of the gags are things that have been effectively recycled from past Awesome Show episodes. Stretched out to cinema pace and viewed through the "clearer" eye of film, the recycled stuff doesn't work nearly as well as it did when new.

Meanwhile, the intertextual public-access / VHS-glitch stuff that makes so much of their comedy on TV doesn't quite jibe on the big screen, since there really is no cinematic parallel to the raw, unintentionally hilarious crappiness of public access (unless you consider Birdemic to be mainstream cinema). T&E seem to have wisely recognized this, and have (mostly) kept the broken- / obsolete-tech humor to segments that are based around the third-party viewing of TV formats. But it's sorely missed... and when it's present, it looks pretty odd (as opposed to funny).

The plot is a ridiculous afterthought, effectively, and I don't think any T&E fan would reasonably expect otherwise. T&E have left room for as many pokes at big / dumb mainstream cinema tropes as possible. But given this, it really could have contained a great deal more pokes. The pacing seems a little slow and lazy in quite a few places, although I suppose almost anything would seem slow compared to Awesome Show.

And though it feels weird to bring this up in a review of a Tim and Eric production, I also feel that things were formally imbalanced. With all the time spent at the S'wallow Valley Mall, we only get a (painfully) narrated rush-through of how T&E ended up in their billion-dollar predicament to begin with. In my mind, at least, it would have been so much funnier to *see* this setup play itself out. (Maybe this went down because they were trying to keep things to 90 minutes. I've gotta ask: why do all modern comedy movies have to be exactly 90 minutes long? Things can be funny for longer than an hour and a half.)

Finally, Zach G and John C. Reilly-- who have contributed SO much to past episodes of Awesome Show (and of course, in the latter case, to Check It Out!)-- find their talents kind of wasted in this film, in relatively one-dimensional roles that could have been so much bigger and so much more funny and/or complex. Will Ferrell is great, though (something you can't always say for him), and Will Forte is also wonderful as usual.

T&E have also found great roles for nearly all of their "best" non-celebrity Awesome Show supporting cast; it's so great to see more than five seconds of a Quall standup routine for once. (I still would have liked to see more Palmer Scott, though, and I am sure some of the many DL-H fans will be a little disappointed with the extent of his screentime.)

The Reddit Q&A that T&E undertook on the day of on-demand release seems to suggest that they see the immediate future of their work in film. Make no mistake, I liked B$M, thought it had some really great moments, will undoubtedly watch it many more times... and I would LOVE to see another film from Tim and Eric (and yes, I'm also chomping at the bit for a chance to see The Comedy).

But I don't think Tim and Eric can make another film anything like this one and remain vital. I'm hoping that, having gotten the apparent cinematic conclusion to Awesome Show out of their system, these two geniuses will now turn to showing us what they can *really* do with the movie format... something really new that departs significantly from their past work, while retaining their inimitable and uncompromising sense of humor-- *and* the cerebral qualities of their best past work. The latter is the part I think I miss the most in watching B$M, which comes off like T&E at their intentionally-dumbest more often than not on first blush. Maybe I will feel differently after repeat viewings, though.

One last note: This movie is for existing fans. Contrary to what you might reasonably expect from the duo's first Big (or "Big") Theatrical Release, there is absolutely *no* accomodation for the uninitiated, who will probably hate this and/or will have no idea what the hell is going on throughout. If you're new to the T&E universe, start with an early season of Awesome Show, or possibly Tom Goes To The Mayor.

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Editor Review: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim specialize in a style of comedy in which the awkward pauses between laughs are at least as important as the actual jokes. When taken in the 15-minute chunks of their various television projects for Adult Swim, the results can be both strangely hilarious and cerebrally upsetting--the sort of thing David Lynch might produce if given the keys to a public access studio. Watching their first feature, however, can leave the viewer feeling like they've been locked inside with Lynch for a four-day weekend. All of the duo's trademarks are present--the unsettling close-ups, the lovingly crafted re-creations of late-night commercials, a supporting cast that seems to have stumbled directly out of the Star Wars cantina--but 90 minutes of this may just be too much of a weird thing, really. Beginning with a hysterically dead-on parody of modern studio credits, the story finds Tim & Eric on the run from the mob after blowing a billion dollars on a 15-minute movie. Looking to repay the debt to the Godfather (Robert Loggia, still terrifying after all these years), they find themselves in charge of a rundown mall packed to the rafters with oddballs, including a jittery Top Gun enthusiast (Will Ferrell), a sickly Wolf-Boy (John C. Reilly), and a ghost haunting the yogurt stand. Then things get weird. There are some very, very funny moments scattered throughout Billion Dollar Movie's running time--most notably a transcendentally disgusting love scene that could very well end the existence of Valentine's Day--but even the most ardent fans may find themselves wishing for a pause button and some fresh air midway through. Newbies and/or the queasy, meanwhile, are advised to get their affairs in order with an attorney before viewing. --Andrew Wright