Entertainment

Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie

It would be insulting to refer to “Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” as amateurish — insulting to amateurs everywhere.

Operating under the mistaken assumption that they are funny, two contributors to Funny or Die named Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have assembled 90 minutes of scenes of them pretending to be makers of an expensive film (they blew the budget on a diamond suit, ha ha), trying to get a job running a mall (called S’wallow Valley) and otherwise hacking out a series of miss-or-miss sketch-comedy concepts. They wear odd haircuts and facial hair, say dirty things and generally try very hard to seem outrageous. Cameos by other unfunny people (such as Zach Galifianakis, who hasn’t made me laugh in about four years) and even actually funny people (such as Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly) all lead to the same drab place — loud, shouty gags that would have been ruled too broad for a late-night show at the Circus Circus circa 1971.

Amateur is derived from the Latin word for love; Tim & Eric seem driven by a hatred of the audience and a wish to punish the same. Every episode of every sitcom I’ve ever seen is funnier than this movie, and I used to watch “Just Shoot Me.”