I'm somewhat on the fence about Tim and
Eric. I've seen their show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, Tim
and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job, a
few times. Unlike the majority of people I've met, I'm neither a
devoted fan of the show nor do I hate them outright. Some of their
bits I find truly hilarious, most notably anything involving John C.
Reilly as Dr. Steve Brule; however many of their more
scatological/gross-out comedy simply isn't for me. Tim and Eric are
at their best when poking fun at low production qualities rather than
simply trying to be gross or weird. Tim and Eric's movie is a similar
experience. I laughed out loud at a number of the gags, but other
moments turned me off to the film. Simply put, if you're a fan of Tim
and Eric, you will like this movie. If you don't like them, you won't
like their movie.
Tim
and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie follows
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, both playing themselves as directors
who have been given a billion dollars by the Schlaaang Corporation to
make a movie. The two of them squander the money on makeovers, a
spiritual guide, diamond suits, and a Johnny Depp impersonator they
believed to be Johnny Depp. They end up with just a few minutes of
footage, and Tommy Schlaaang (Robert Loggia) CEO of Schlaaang Corp.
becomes furious over the loss of his fortune and vows to hunt down
and kill Tim and Eric if they don't pay him back. Tim and Eric move
from LA to S'Wallow Valley after seeing an advertisement where Will
Ferrell promises they can make a billion dollars by running the local
mall. When they arrive at the mall, they find it to be completely
rundown; covered in garbage and graffiti, and housing not only
homeless people, but also a feral wolf. With Taquito (John C.
Reilly), a sickly, near death boy who got lost in the mall years ago,
as their guide, Tim and Eric set out to renovate the mall and turn it
into a successful business, all while hoping Schlaaang doesn't track
them down.
Red Band Trailer, NSFW.
The
believability of the plot doesn't matter, the ridiculousness is part
of the humor. The setting of a mall allows Tim and Eric to
incorporate plenty of fake commercials, a staple of their TV show,
into the movie and most of them are pretty funny. As I said before,
there are some funny bits. An ongoing gag about Tim forcibly adopting
a boy away from his father is delightfully awkward. Will Forte is
also hilarious as the owner of a sword shop who doesn't want the mall
to succeed because of a deal with the city that gives him money to
not sell swords. However, other parts fell flat. I really did not
like the character of Taquito, he wasn't funny and was just
unpleasant to look at. Another scene where Eric gets defecated upon
by several people at the same time was equally off-putting. The
ending of the film I found to be actually pretty good, and was able
to put the worst of the film in the back of my mind and as a result
saved it from being truly awful.
No comments:
Post a Comment