“Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” is one of the few live-action series to have aired on the Cartoon Network’s late-night Adult Swim block. But where else could it have been shown?
Quirky doesn’t begin to describe the series that might actually be indescribable. Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, two guys who look completely average — if not below it — created and starred in the sketch comedy show that had the feel of public-access television but the content of a raunchy movie. It was, in its way, genius.
Now the pair has made a feature film, “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.” Most of the “Saturday Night Live”-inspired movies proved that a joke that’s funny in a five-minute sketch often isn’t when it’s stretched out to 90 minutes. “Tim and Eric” doesn’t suffer from that problem. But the guys, as usual, go as far as they can — and that’s not always funny.
| On screen |
| ‘Tim & Bill’s Billion Dollar Movie’ |
| 3 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell |
| Directors: Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim |
| Rated: R for strong crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, comic violence and drug use |
| Running time: 93 minutes |
The title refers not to the film’s budget, but its plot. Tim and Eric have gone Hollywood, blowing their movie budget on stylists and gurus. The Johnny Depp impersonator they hire to star in their film isn’t that good. So the moneyman (an amusingly sinister Robert Loggia) wants his billion back.
The boys find a way to get it, watching one of the silly sort of ads they excelled at making on their television show. Will Ferrell, a co-producer, has a small role here as the owner of S’wallow Valley Mall. He’s offering a billion dollars to anyone who will “Come and run my mall!” Tim and Eric see their opportunity, not only to make the billion back, but to reconnect with their true selves — and each other.
Revitalizing the mall will prove harder than expected, though. The building is full of squatters. One of the shop owners (“SNL” alum Will Forte) purposely tries not to unload product — the school district pays him to keep his swords off the street. And the mall’s pizza court is haunted by a wolf.
But Tim and Eric reinvent themselves as businessmen. They develop “3 Keys to Success”: “#1: Get Rid of Wolf.”
The real Tim and Eric have a lot of famous friends to help make this movie a success. Besides Ferrell and Forte, John C. Reilly and Zach Galifianakis also make important appearances. But the end product is all Tim and Eric. “Understanding Your Movie” segments explain the major themes. The only low points of their big-screen appearance come when they get too obsessed with the scatological. They don’t need poop jokes to shock viewers; their crazy comedy does a fine job without them.
