By Samir Mathur
TIM AND DOLLAR'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE plays at Enzian on Friday and Saturday nights at 11.59pm. (Details and tickets)
It’s very difficult to explain Tim and Eric to someone that doesn’t know them. I must confess that I am, at best, a moderate fan of theirs. I enjoyed their first TV show, ‘Tom Goes To The Mayor’ quite a bit, but their ‘Awesome Show, Great Job!’ was always a little bit too much for me. They’re the masters of anti-comedy - holding every reaction shot for too long; repeating a catchphrase too many times; using sharp edits and extreme close ups, etc. Most of their laughs come from things that demonstrably shouldn’t be funny, but become funny for exactly that reason. Also, they are usually pretty disgusting. Basically, the TV show gave viewers a million reasons not to enjoy it, but many people loved it for exactly those reasons.
So when they came to making a feature film, Tim and Eric were faced with a dilemma. Should they soften the edges, and make something more palatable for more people? Or, should they take the extra money and double down, and go further than they’ve ever gone before? To their credit, they have taken the latter route. The movie deserves credit for being bigger, weirder and grosser than anything that’s come before. Fans of ‘Awesome Show’ will be delighted, everyone else will probably be horrified. It’s not really worth talking about the plot, because it’s really unimportant. What matters is: there’s an infomercial at the start featuring Jeff Goldblum; later on you’ll see a man with a pierced goatee, a child used as a human shield, and a feral John C. Reilly (an Academy Award nominee, lest we forget) attacking a fox. Oh, and there’s a scene that involves Shrim that will – no joke – haunt my nightmares until my dying day.
I can’t say I enjoyed “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’, but my laugh-to-cringe-in-terror ratio was about equal. The laughs are very powerful, for sure, but the weirdness is equally palpable. This seems like a perfect movie to see at midnight, and the world’s worst date movie. Watch the trailer above, and see if you’ve got the stomach. Also, if you're a fan of theirs, you may consider signing their BDM Pledge, which also affirms that you will stay away from seeing The Lorax.
Contributing writer
TIM AND DOLLAR'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE plays at Enzian on Friday and Saturday nights at 11.59pm. (Details and tickets)
It’s very difficult to explain Tim and Eric to someone that doesn’t know them. I must confess that I am, at best, a moderate fan of theirs. I enjoyed their first TV show, ‘Tom Goes To The Mayor’ quite a bit, but their ‘Awesome Show, Great Job!’ was always a little bit too much for me. They’re the masters of anti-comedy - holding every reaction shot for too long; repeating a catchphrase too many times; using sharp edits and extreme close ups, etc. Most of their laughs come from things that demonstrably shouldn’t be funny, but become funny for exactly that reason. Also, they are usually pretty disgusting. Basically, the TV show gave viewers a million reasons not to enjoy it, but many people loved it for exactly those reasons.
So when they came to making a feature film, Tim and Eric were faced with a dilemma. Should they soften the edges, and make something more palatable for more people? Or, should they take the extra money and double down, and go further than they’ve ever gone before? To their credit, they have taken the latter route. The movie deserves credit for being bigger, weirder and grosser than anything that’s come before. Fans of ‘Awesome Show’ will be delighted, everyone else will probably be horrified. It’s not really worth talking about the plot, because it’s really unimportant. What matters is: there’s an infomercial at the start featuring Jeff Goldblum; later on you’ll see a man with a pierced goatee, a child used as a human shield, and a feral John C. Reilly (an Academy Award nominee, lest we forget) attacking a fox. Oh, and there’s a scene that involves Shrim that will – no joke – haunt my nightmares until my dying day.
I can’t say I enjoyed “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’, but my laugh-to-cringe-in-terror ratio was about equal. The laughs are very powerful, for sure, but the weirdness is equally palpable. This seems like a perfect movie to see at midnight, and the world’s worst date movie. Watch the trailer above, and see if you’ve got the stomach. Also, if you're a fan of theirs, you may consider signing their BDM Pledge, which also affirms that you will stay away from seeing The Lorax.