Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

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Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Billion Dollar Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Produced by Will Ferrell
Adam McKay
Dave Kneebone
Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Screenplay by Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Story by Jonathan Krisel
Doug Lussenhop
Jon Mugar
Narrated by Michael Gross
Starring Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Zach Galifianakis
Will Ferrell
Music by Davin Wood
Cinematography Rachel Morrison
Editing by Daniel Haworth
Doug Lussenhop
Studio 2929 Productions
Gary Sanchez Productions
Funny or Die Films
Distributed by Magnet Releasing
Release date(s)
  • January 20, 2012 (2012-01-20) (Sundance Film Festival)
  • March 2, 2012 (2012-03-02) (United States)
Running time 94 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3 million[1]
Box office $201,436[2]

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (shorthand B$M) is a 2012 American comedy film written and directed by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creators of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. The film stars Heidecker and Wareheim with a supporting cast which includes Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, Jeff Goldblum, John C. Reilly, Erica Durance, and Will Forte.[3]

It was released in theaters on March 2, 2012, and was released to iTunes and on-demand January 27, 2012.[4] None of the intellectual property that originated in previous Tim and Eric television projects reappears as the film was made without the involvement of Adult Swim and Williams Street Productions, though many of the cast and crew members involved had previously collaborated with the duo.

Contents

Plot [edit]

Tim and Eric are two filmmakers who are given a record-setting $1 Billion budget to make a movie. The funds are provided by Tommy Schlaaang and the Schlaaang Corporation. The two waste all of their money on the making of Bonjour, Diamond Jim, a three-minute film starring a Johnny Depp impersonator, and leave Los Angeles in fear that they will go to prison or be hunted down by the Schlaaang Corp. After seeing an advertisement for it in a bathroom, Tim and Eric decided to renovate the S'Wallow Valley Mall in the hopes that they will make back their billion dollar debt. While trying to refurbish the mall, they must deal with vagrants (ex. a man-child named Taquito), bizarre stores (ex. Reggie's Used Toilet Paper Discount Warehouse), and a man-eating wolf that stalks the food court. They are eventually discovered by the Schlaaang Corporation thanks to Alan Bishopman, an abrasive man who owns a sword shop in the mall. After a dramatic shootout in front of the mall, in which most of the main characters are killed, Tim and Eric manage to kill the members of the Schlaaang Corporation before the movie ends with them being sentenced to death for murder.

At the end, the whole movie is revealed to have been a film-within-a-film the two were showing to Steven Spielberg, who pronounces it the greatest movie ever made. Tim and Eric then celebrate with their Awesome Show co-stars as the credits roll.

Before the movie's release Tim & Eric started the Billion Dollar Pledge asking fans and celebrities to support them by signing a document stating they would not illegally download the film, and also not to see its box office competition The Lorax. Stars who took part in the pledge ranged from comedians and actors Ben Stiller, Mark Proksch, Bob Odenkirk, Seth Green, Peter Serafinowicz, Todd Barry, Rashida Jones and others to musicians Weird Al Yankovic, Maynard James Keenan, Josh Groban, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Maroon 5. [5]

Cast [edit]

Uncredited roles

Production [edit]

Portions of the film were shot in the Coachella Valley, California and Palm Springs at the abandoned Desert Fashion Plaza which was used for S'wallow Valley Mall.[6] Tim and Eric had originally planned to use an entire town but for budgetary reasons it was scaled back to a mall. The idea for a dying shopping center came from Monroeville Mall (of Dawn of the Dead fame) and Hunt Valley Mall in Eric's hometown of Baltimore. Like the fictional mall, Hunt Valley was in fact redeveloped from top to bottom except the interior walkways have been converted to open-air and was successful upon its "grand reopening". The same went for Desert Fashion Plaza which was in the process of being de-malled and re-imagined as a new "Main Street" at the time filming began, adding authenticity to the movie setting.[citation needed]

Release [edit]

The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in January 2012. In an interview, the duo deadpanned that the film was spliced together with deleted scenes from the DVD release of Rango.[7]

Box office [edit]

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie opened on March 2, 2012 and grossed $87,475 in its opening weekend, ranking at #42.[8] It would go on for another 7 weeks before closing to only $201,436 in the domestic box office.[2]

Critical reception [edit]

Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie has received mixed to negative reviews from critics on its original release. The film ranking website Rotten Tomatoes rated the film "rotten", with 38% of critics giving the film positive reviews, based upon a sample of 58.[9] Variety gave the film a negative review stating that Tim and Eric "torture their purposefully inept, shortform sketch work into feature length...to diminishing returns." and that "Even fans of their Cartoon Network series or those simply familiar with the pair via YouTube will likely find the extended version of their pathos-and-pain-driven comedy hard to digest."[10] The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a negative review stating "Auds attuned to Tim & Eric's weird wavelength will find plenty of guffaws in the first half, but a plot this thin can't sustain comedy based on discomfort".[11] The A.V. Club gave the film a B+ rating, opining that the film "feels genuinely dangerous and transgressive: it makes a virtue of going way too far because other comedies don’t go far enough."[12] Roger Ebert gave the film 1/2 star out of 4 and said it was so bad, it wouldn't even qualify for a review in a book consisting solely of reviews of terrible movies (along the lines of his "Your Movie Sucks" editions).[13]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Stein, Ruthe. "Q&A with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 February 2012. 
  2. ^ a b Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie at Box Office Mojo
  3. ^ Lussier, Germain (March 2, 2011). "‘Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie’ Is A Go Featuring Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly". Slashfilm. Retrieved August 23, 2011. 
  4. ^ "'Tim and Eric Movie to be Released On Demand'". SocialTechPop. Retrieved January 10, 2012. 
  5. ^ https://www.facebook.com/zittwins
  6. ^ Palm Springs Visitors Center. "Coachella Valley Feature Film Production 1920–2011". Filming in Palm Springs. Palm Springs, CA. Retrieved October 1, 2012.  ♦ Download (Downloadable PDF file)
  7. ^ "'In the can, Sundance 2012". youtube.com. 2012-01-25. Retrieved 2012-01-25. 
  8. ^ "Weekend Box Office Results for March 2-4, 2012". Amazon.com. Box Office Mojo. 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2013-03-03. 
  9. ^ "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 1, 2012. 
  10. ^ Anderson, John (January 21, 2012). "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie". Variety. Retrieved February 20, 2012. 
  11. ^ DeFore, John (January 21, 2012). "Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie: Sundance Film Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 20, 2012. 
  12. ^ Rabin, Nathan (January 27, 2012). "Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie". AV Club. Retrieved February 20, 2012. 
  13. ^ "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie". Chicago Sun-Times. 

External links [edit]
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