Post by StevePulaski on Mar 2, 2012 14:56:45 GMT -5
Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.
Rating: ★
I've been known to enjoy many cult films in my day, and I've been known to hate many cult films as well. I can't remember the last time I hated a cult film this much. Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie is a wretched comedy with one joke after another falling flatter and flatter as time goes on, desperately careening itself over the ninety minute mark to pass as a sufficient film. I've only watched their Adult Swim program a handful of times, and found very few things funny about it as well. The film, which markets itself as if it was the funniest thing to ever come out on a screen, is horrifically awful.
It amazes me to see what Adult Swim puts on their network today. They obviously have a great deal of money, what with shows like Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 and Robot Chicken, yet they fund so much of it into directionless shows with no wit or humor. Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was, surprisingly, a great hit with the Adult Swim audience. Their movie might as well be named Tim and Eric Disgraceful Film, So Sorry!.
I'm prepared to get the backlash of the century, with people from all around the United States telling me how I can't appreciate "real" humor and that I have poor taste in films. So be it. The "Tim and Eric" fanbase is on a grandscale, and yes, I dare say it is a cult. Cult films aren't my specialty, but like I've said before, I've enjoyed very many of them. But the second I say something wrong about the cult you like, I'll never hear the end of it.
Although I can vaguely understand why the "Tim and Eric" series has developed a cult following, I imagine for its inane dialog and anti-humor setup, I still can't understand the appeal. There are scenes in this film that baffle me, mainly because they are either simply grotesque or desperately asking for laughs. What is so funny about a man getting a piercing in his penis? Or for that matter, where is the humor in the situation where a grown man is sitting in a bathtub being defecated on by a slew of men? And there is certainly no humor to be found about the depressing event in which a man is running a "used toilet paper" store in the mall.
Let me bring you up to speed; Tim and Eric are two morons who are given a billion dollars by the Schlaaang corporation (a name that desperately screams "laugh at us") to create their movie, Diamond Jim. When the movie turns out to be only three minutes in length, and awful for that matter, the company requests a refund. Tim and Eric spent the billion dollars acquiring useless V.I.P. treatment, a Johnny Depp lookalike, and a ton of other expenses.
To try and make the money back, they go to a mall that advertises a billion dollars to anyone who gets the mall working again. It turns out, the mall is a despicable dump and is inhabited by homeless people. The mall is run by Will Ferrell playing yet another unfunny character, and other misfits in the mall are played by Will Forte, John C. Reilly, and Ray Wise. The film is also narrated by Michael Gross, who might as well do Tremors 5 at this point to make up for this grand mistake.
I forgot to mention; before the film, we have to spend five minutes watching dopey and utterly amateur ads about Schlaaang products such as a lounge chair that harms you and makes you look like a suffering hospital patient. Is any of this funny? Were Tim and Eric so hard-pressed and desperate for laughs they decided to make random PSAs about intentionally horrible products? If you have to resort to making a fictitious PSA for a product that is obviously horrible, don't expect to achieve comedic heights.
Granted, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie is a cult film, and I probably just gave some fanboys the greatest laugh of their day after ranting about the film. Just because it's a cult film doesn't give it the excuse to be comically lost and deliberately insufferable. The dialog is thin, the performances laughably bad (probably intentional), and the scent of desperation is so thick it becomes distracting.
NOTE: It has also come to my attention that Mark Cuban, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank regular, actually financed this picture. I hope when I grow I hope I have enough money to finance loathsome pictures as well.
Starring: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, William Atherton, John C. Reilly, Will Forte, Ray Wise, Jeff Goldblum, and Michael Gross. Directed by: Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.