Review: Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

It's embarrassing to think that Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie was made by grownups. To begin, it's very simply not funny. Comedy usually relies on very precise delivery, with special rhythms and beats, but Heidecker and Wareheim have completely ignored that concept. Instead they aggressively repeat punchlines, hammering them again and again in the vain hope that they will become funnier, rather than less funny. The dead space where laughter should be is like lead.

 In Hollywood, Tim (Tim Heidecker) and Eric (Eric Wareheim) have just blown one billion dollars on an unreleasable movie that only lasts a few minutes. (In one of their many mistakes, they accidentally cast a Johnny Depp lookalike instead of the real Johnny Depp.) To escape their angry financiers (Robert Loggia and William Atherton), and to raise money, they agree to take on a job refurbishing a dilapidated and dangerous shopping mall. While there they meet a range of strange characters, and they learn about a ravenous wolf and the secret of "Shrim." But can they finish the mall before the their enemies track them down and take their revenge?

The characters of Tim and Eric are very simply vile, hateful, irritating, stupid, and worthless. In one scene, Tim steals a small boy from his father and "adopts" him as his own son. (This horrifying event is supposed to be funny.) Most other characters are one-joke types, such as "Taquito" (John C. Reilly), who is sick and keeps coughing up blood. Again, this is supposed to be played for laughs. The directing -- contributed by the two lead actors -- has a vaguely sick, sludgy quality; the entire movie leaves off with an uneasy, empty feeling.

For some reason, aside from Reilly, Loggia, and Atherton, Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, and Ray Wise also appear, much to their detriment.