Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

I'm not familiar with the many many shows of Tim & Eric, I'd been told they were an acquired taste and weren't for everyone. The last time I was told this was about the television series Flight of the Conchords (2007) and I absolutely despised it.

I went in open minded but expecting the worst, in fact part of me wanted to dislike it. Sadly I couldn't, yes a large percentage of it is childish and purile but for every bad joke there is a really quite good one.

Tim & Eric do a decent enough job here and are flanked by a great cast including plenty of cameos.

From Jeff Goldblum to Erica Durance, Robert Loggia, William Atherton, Michael Gross, Twink Caplan, Ray Wise, Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Zach Galifianakis and John C. Reilly. This by itself was very impressive, my attention was grabbed.

Again a lot of it is the most childish level of humour but it's saved by some great gags and I have a feeling this will linger in my mind for a while for both good and bad reasons.

If you like random, bizzare comedies then this might be right up your street but be aware this pushes the boundaries in places and isn't for the faint of heart.

Passable stuff.

The Good:

Some really funny stuff

Great cast

I loved the plot

The Bad:

Some of the humour is pathetic

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If my sex life ever devolves into that I'm moving to Yemen

These new health fads are getting out of control

If people always exploded from gun fire movies would be so much better

Much of this movie is utter nonsense punctuated by constant gags of both the visual and verbal varieties. Many people absolutely hated this film, most of them probably not being Tim and Eric fans who were unpleasantly baffled by this bizarre comic mess, others being Tim and Eric fans who were disappointed by the film for whatever reason, whether it be because of the admittedly mixed gross-out content or its awkward incorporation of a plot which contradicts the sketch/variety show-ish format of 'Tim and Eric's Awesome Show,' but, honestly, I was super entertained and amused by this movie and find it to be super underrated. From the ridiculous opening with "Chef Goldblum" to the weird fatherly attachment Tim feels towards a random young boy to so much more, I was laughing some big laughs throughout. It's super quotable, the cameos are all funny even if they aren't necessarily well executed, the satire and aplenty, and everything is so over-the-top and zany that it's hard for me not to be extremely amused by such a work of senseless, absurdist comedy.

This is one of the strangest films I have ever seen, mainly due to how much it leaves you near constantly questioning what is going on. Not so much from a narrative standpoint, but in the absolute weirdness of the humor, which, having been taken out of Tim and Eric's usual 45 second sketch format and placed in a feature length film, seems even more jarring than usual. This is not a bad thing, however; I do love me some Tim and Eric weirdness. That's the main point of this film: you HAVE to already be familiar with this style of humor, or you will HATE it, trust me. Within the first 10 seconds of the film, the uninitiated will ask the following questions: Why is Jeff Goldblum saying that his name is Chef Goldblum? Am I watching a commercial before the movie? Why did he say hi three times? Am I going to hate this movie? If you had to ask all of these questions, then the answer to the last one is most certainly yes. The crux to Tim and Eric's anarchical humor is acceptance of everything; in order to enjoy any of their material, one must essentially accept that almost everything is clichéd and trite, and here is a nihilistic parody of that as well as the entire world. This is not to say that you can't criticize this film; I doubt that even the most fervent of Tim and Eric supporters laugh at all of their jokes. For me, those that fall the most flat are the gross out gags; the ones involving diarrhea, semen, urine, etc. (if you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about) Even so, I'm sure that Tim and Eric understood this, that many would dislike some of these gags, but simply didn't care. Even more, I think that this movie strangely enough wouldn't work without them. The spirit of all of this duo's products is a fierce sense of experimentation; were it that every joke felt the same, or even that there were coherent running gags, that experimentation would be lost. This is a movie for a distinct group of people who want to see complete insanity unfold before them, without a hint of normality throughout the entire thing. If you want to try out something like this, I suggest going to the television series first, as it is shorter and far easier to digest. If you are already a fan of the show, however, you will love this thing, as I did. It's demented weirdness at its finest.

There's only so much you can do.

As a constant listener of Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, I found an interview with him and T&E mentor Bob Odenkirk, and he describes exactly what I think held this movie back from being what it could have been: When you make a movie, you have a LOT of people to please on some level. The producers, directors, actors, executive producers, EVERYONE has to be pleased on some level, or else there's gonna be a problem. I think that this concept comes through in this movie in huge ways.

The story here is the same as many of the people reviewing this movie. As a huge Tim and Eric fan, I'd been looking forward to this movie for quite some time, and very simply put, you should go in with your expectations in the medium-low range. There are some really funny moments, but there are multiple problems with this film that include, but are not limited to:

• A very Hollywood-esque feel, as opposed to a classic, awkward Tim and Eric feel. This could have been used to certain advantages, but only a small amount of the jokes attempted within this context are notably funny.

• An EXTREME lack of the Awesome-Show style jokes prevalent in Check it Out and TAEAS.

• As a certain critic pointed out, the storyline simply isn't funny. I found myself laughing at way more of the off-kilter characters and awkward, stabbing moments than jokes coming from the story.

This doesn't mean that T&E fans necessarily have to go home sobbing, however. Loggia, Ferrell and Forte serve very good, funny roles, Forte especially notable as a sword salesman constantly on the edge of losing his mind. The son jokes are present, the ending is pretty funny, and let's just say that Shrim definitely serves up to it's mysterious poking-at in the preview.

5/10. It's alrite, but if you're expecting the greatest T&E masterpiece of all time, you, unfortunately, will have to wait for another day.

I want to start by saying I am a die hard T-n-E fan. I love Awesome Show, Tom Goes To The Mayor was damn good, I love most of their short films, and I am a huge fan of Eric's music videos. Needless to say I was looking forward to this movie for quite some time.

Now I sit here preaching to other fans who think the exact same thing. As I'm sure most fans already have seen the movie, I will gear this towards everyone. I don't know whether it was the massive hype that built me up too much, or the style of humor has been exhausted through my countless hours of watching and rewatching all that is Tim and Eric. Maybe it is the fact that a crossing of the fine line between my love for Tim and Eric and my hatred for Will Ferrell movies was inevitable. I hope its none of the above, but I know it is all of the above.

My biggest quarrel with this movie (and I know some might persecute me for this view) is the dirty humor. The brilliance of Tim and Eric lies in the not-subliminal-whatsoever absurdness that the style brings. Awesome show was just that. It was shock humor not based on the vulgarity but on the sheer surprise that a mind could conceive of the silliness. This is not new, just new in the way Tim and Eric have mastered the art. But now we bring vulgarity into it. In past shorts they have done, the vulgarity doesn't blend with the creativity well. As a matter of fact, it sort of takes it over. Shock value is great when it is done in a new, fresh, cerebral way. This movie pushed creativity to the side and rooted the shock humor in vulgar ways that just are too easy to do. To me, the movie was one big cheap laugh after the next. This stuff could be funny, even to me, but I expect that from a Will Ferrel movie or an American Pie 36: The Giant Maneating Boob, or something juvenile. The point is that Tim and Eric, who gained my trust as artists worthy of high appraisal, didn't "sell out" (I hate that term) but they damn sure got close. Towards the end of the movie, all I wanted was to watch their "Ooh Mama" sketch to feel some sort of creativity.

The next issue I had was the sheer arrogance of these guys. Look, I get it. They are famous and get lots of money to do what they do. As I see or listen to the guys outside of the entertainment, I can't help but feel like these guys are really full of themselves. The gimmicks leading up to the movie, the interviews where they act like they are above their fans. It doesn't have much to do with the movie, but it totally makes me not as psyched when I loose the feeling of "I can see myself partying with these guys".

The third issue I have is that when they had an opportunity to say something in the movie (that is, take the movie plot past the silliness and say something such as the ridiculousness of the cinema industry in Hollywood etc) they would always flirt with the idea and then never seal the deal. I often found myself hoping they would do something more to really make a bold and hilarious statement. Often, all lampooning or anything that could be applied to lives outside the movie fell flat. The plot didn't maintain the chiseled roundness I had hoped for in a feature movie. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut (as well as Team America: World Police for that matter) is the textbook definition of making a statement and hammering it in to make the plot have value. This one did not... not even close.

Overall, I had a few laughs but not enough. I was not impressed with the carelessness of the writing and direction that past Tim and Eric projects had. As stated before, I wish they had done something more and something that is at least creative as the Tim and Eric I fell in love with. I hope this isn't me falling out of love with them.