Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have been the kings of underground comedy for the past several years. Their style is usually referred to as anti-comedy, which pretty much means that their comedy is funny precisely because it's just so unfunny. I don't really buy into that description, simply because I do find their work funny. It's awkward as Hell and entirely bizarre, and it just doesn't work for most people. And, yes, I find the fact that so many people don't get it - and get so damned angry that they don't get it - highly amusing, but that's not the only reason I enjoy them. Hollywood producer Tommy Schlaaang (Robert Loggia - God knows if he's in on the joke or not, but he's hilarious in the movie) has given the duo a billion dollars to make a movie, and the result is a three minute short starring Johnny Depp (or rather an impersonator - everyone swore it was really Depp!) wearing a suit made entirely out of diamonds. Loggia and his assistant William Atherton (the reporter from Die Hard) demand that they be paid back, and the opportunity to make a billion dollars comes in the unlikely form of Will Ferrell, who insists that he'll pay anyone a billion dollars if they are able to reform his run-down mall. Tim and Eric go to the mall, which resembles a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and apply to be its new PR team. The plot is, of course, ramshackle nonsense and the film feels very much like the work of a sketch comedy team, but I have no problem with that as long as it's funny. And I thought it was damn hilarious. Sure, there are bits and pieces that miss, but I laughed - and hard - through the great majority of it. Other famous participants include John C. Reilly, Jeff Goldblum, Will Forte and Zach Galifianakis. This is easily my favorite comedy of 2012, but it's a hard one to recommend, since some people get downright murderous when they watch anything by Tim and Eric.

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

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.

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.

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.