Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012)

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 writ

Fmovies: Let me detail everything this movie is, very briefly, so we can take a look at this logically.

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie is satire. It's a parody on people trying to make a movie, followed by absurd, random, goofy plot points that don't make any sense. The entire film is an anti-climax. It borders on surreal and if you try to watch it for any reason other than Tim and Eric you're in for a disappointment.

Now, let's get this straight: What this movie IS NOT - IS TIM AND ERIC AWESOME SHOW GREAT JOB.

I do not know why people came into this thinking it was a movie about the TV show. Or why this movie would have anything to do with the TV show. It was not called the Tim and Eric Awesome Movie, or something like that. It's totally separate. It has a lot of jokes/humor reminiscent of the show, but ultimately it's a standalone movie. The movie is as different from Awesome Show as Tom Goes to the Mayor is from Awesome Show.

With that being said, the movie wasn't nearly as funny as the show manages to be. That's not saying much, however, because the shows are short burst comedies designed for 11 minute time frames. That kind of format would NOT work, ever, period, in a 90 minute film. Tim and Eric did what they could with the best material they could to make it into a movie format thats suitable for fans and non-fans alike. It portrays their humor very well, but it doesn't adhere to the same format as the TV Show. Again, I don't know why anyone thought this was a movie about the TV show. All I see are complaints about certain characters not being in the movie, but it's not an Awesome Show movie, pure and simple.

I keep reading "OK, you have to be a Tim and Eric Fan to like the movie" and i can honestly say I thought I was one of those people. I could never quite explain why I like their TV Show and many people told me I was an idiot to watch stuff like that. But who cares... the whole anarchist film making was different, creative... and strangely funny!

Now with this movie its a totally different thing. This has to be one of the dumbest and most useless waste of resources ever. There was not one single scene that gave me a hint of a smile. Sure the usual ingredients were there but just in strange homeopathic doses that just didn't work. Some cheap TV commercial spoofs, crazy editing, sound distortions and gross ideas... you know it from "Awesome show". But this movie didn't just suffer of the fact that not even 10 Minutes of it reached the level of the TV show. I could understand someone falling flat with a feature film considering the length of it but this is like they want to make fun of the viewer by just being as dumb as humanly possible.

There is not one single scene I can get back in my mind which would come close to the weird ads, intermissions, zany animations and Characters from the show. Some of the characters did appear but totally out of context. For example John C. Reilly appears not as Steve Brule but as a character named Taquito who was supposed to be funny because he is sick and coughing or salivating on everything. That sort of pre-school humor seems to be squeezed in for shock value to make people speak of anything after seeing the movie. There is especially 2 scenes of a graphic genital piercing and a diarrhetic bubble bath which are so obviously squeezed in for that purpose that it made me angry.

I am especially angry that these boneheads waste a budget that many aspiring filmmakers would kill for and present a turd on a silver platter. This movie is literally the same thing they joke about with the billion dollar movie they make in the movie. But just like everything about this.... it is not funny. The only movie I can think of that left me with an equal taste of absolute meaninglessness in my mouth is Uwe Bolls "German fried movie".

So congratulations Tim+Eric... you made one of the worst movies in history. Maybe that was the intention, but even that would be the most despicable waste of resources and talent.

Biggest disappointment of the year!

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie fmovies. Count me as one of those perplexed by the negative reaction of so-called Tim and Eric fans. This movie is funny. Yeah it's stupid, gross and childish - but as in the rest of their work, there's some perceptive satire in here. B$M is a middle-finger salute to Hollywood and the mass media swamp we've been bathing in for the past 20 years. There's also a recurring indictment of corporate culture that bubbles throughout the entire film. Of course you don't need to know any of this to laugh out loud at the lunacy on display by these two weirdos. It always seems to me that T&E are at their best when they go into "full retard" mode but it's also hilarious to see them as dementedly sincere "managers" confronting a used-toilet paper salesman and the bizarre relationship entanglements between T&E and a middle-aged balloon seller and a 7 year old boy. This is seriously disturbing stuff. Maybe the only way to confront T&E's brand of horror-humor is to laugh hardily.

Now if you excuse me, I'm off to watch Top Gun from the top for the second time today. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Having loved and enjoyed Tim and Eric's stuff for years, I couldn't wait to see this film. I was utterly disappointed however to find myself watching a film so bad and so far from grace that I could barely even stomach the entire thing. I am left with a bad taste in my mouth. This is one of the worst films I've seen in maybe two years. It is not funny, it is just a commercialised, tacky, stale and repetitive nightmare of the dream Tim and Eric used to be. The plot was irrelevant and banal, the jokes failed to ignite even the smallest flame of laughter; instead, I sat with an ever deepening frown on my face, embarrassed every time another gag flopped.

I'm sorry guys, you blew it. I loved her, and you blew it.

This movie killed me. I'm a huge Tim and Eric fan, and I can say without a doubt, if you like their humor, you will love this film. They have truly taken their humor to the next level. Like the best comedy, it is truly polarizing. You either love it and think its brilliant or you hate it and think its stupid. The trailblazers in any field are those who take risks and don't worry about pleasing everyone. The rest of TV is like that, which made me love Tim and Eric so much ever since "Tom Goes To The Mayor" because they are so apart from the pack and against the grain. Besides that, this film is just plain hilarious. Dark, sure, not the same as the show, sure. But the key is that its incredibly funny. If you don't like Tim and Eric, you won't like the film. Its that simple. Try watching some of their stuff online, and if you dig it, you will dig the film. They've stayed true to their vision, and have created an amazing film.