Film Review: Midnight Show Vibe in ‘Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’

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CHICAGO – The midnight movie show, popularized by “Rocky Horror,” always needs new candidates. The raunchy, hit-and-miss “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” is fresh midnight meat, stamped with “love” from Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (”Tom Goes to the Mayor”).

Rating: 3.0/5.0

The pacing, narrative – if it can be called that – and literal stabs at humor are awkward and stupefying, but it is so freaking bizarre and so anti-everything that it succeeds at a level that only Tim and Eric, and possibly you, can understand. This makes it perfect midnight movie fare, mind altering and luscious at that magical hour, with hangover inducing shame to follow. There are parts of the movie that are simply either too stupid or too extreme to digest, and there are parts that are funny in a way that is psychologically invasive. The good news is that no one will ever be able to compare it to anything else.

Tim (Tim Heidecker) and Eric (Eric Wareheim) are media moguls who are given a billion dollars to create the next Hollywood happening. This leads to an excessive lifestyle that puts the film on the back burner for the duo, but they do manage to squeeze out a five minute test reel that features the main character wearing a suit made all of diamonds. No wonder the investors, led by an angry Tommy Schlaaang (Robert Loggia), literally want to kill the duo.

Distraught on what to do next, and despite advice from their spiritual advisor Jim Joe Kelly (Zach Galifianakis), the boys see an ad for a job running a failing shopping mall. Upon arriving they find a ghost town of broken consumer dreams, desperately being run by Damien Weebs (Will Ferrell), and populated by questionable shops, the homeless and a mysterious mall rat named Taquito (John C. Reilly). If they can get the mall up and running again, maybe they can pay back their billion dollar movie sin.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”

Tim Heidecker (left) and Eric Wareheim in ‘Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’ Photo credit: Magnet Releasing

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”