By "Cryptic" Josh Villaire
Collegiate Staff
Usually ready to swallow the gray dietary thrills of the sharp conservative knife-blade, and well-lit tours of the bloated mega-blockbuster, Grand Rapids outdid itself by hosting Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheims' mad pandemonium of a film that splashed its stomach acids onto the cinematic screen this March 23 to March 29. Before ''Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie'' opened at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts these two dudes were the real shake appeal on Adult Swim serving up felonious puke gags that pulled no punches. On their 15 minute ''Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Great Job'' that featured misnamed, look-alike celebrities, abnormal actors, bad 80s wardrobe choices, and the inane fantasies of two bumbling television hosts trapped in some cable access show from hell's raunchy armpit. It was through this vehicle that they began to grow on the populace like a five-day culture beard into one of the most sickening cult skit shows ever that has been dubbed ''the death of comedy'', and has taken a bite out of our collective crime-psyche like Mike Tyson on hallucinogens.
The premise of the film seems to swarm around the tragedy of Tim and Eric making a film for the Shlaaang cooperation that is also a crime syndicate headed by Robert Loggia. They manage to blow the billion dollar budget on a gigantic diamond encrusted suit for their huge lead Johnny Depp somehow missing the glaring detail that they hired Depp's body double and not the real McCoy. Tim and Eric scrape off the movie-star veneer and head to S'wallow Valley Mall to make a billion after watching an unhinged Damien Weebs (played by Will Ferrell) flog them with commercials goading them into believing that they can make a hot billion by revamping his faded mall look.
At first look you might assume that Tim, and Eric are just fans of really bad TV to the point of trying to replicate it. While viewing the actors and small-time celebrities they use for their skits and movies you get the nagging feeling that many of their old standbys were rescued from food-lines and dark alleys. However, this adds enormously to the surreal aspects in the show. Ray Wise(Dad from Twin Peaks), Michael Gross(Dad from Family Ties), Jeff Goldblum(The Fly), and many more give you the claustrophobic feeling that your not at a movie anymore, but on a broken, antique roller-coaster that just flew dangerously off the track. Tim and Eric have tapped into something which our society is sorely lacking, and that is an unflinching look of itself. If you dig the dark magic of David Lynch and Ed Wood rolled into a thick tortilla of unsparing comedy that aims to offend every aspect of society at each eye-gouging turn this is your type of entertainment. If anyone's tongue is poking out of their mouth after reading this hype I highly recommend they visit www.magnetreleasing.com/timandericmovie/ for theater listings and previews. 'Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie' is a breath of fresh air for those whose funny bones have grown numb from mindless misuse. Snatch it when it comes to video or track down their Adult Swim show if you have the cajones to beat a new drum.
