Magnet Releasing have recently released stills for their upcoming release "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie", which recently premiered at this year's festival. The film stars Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim from "Tim and Eric Awesome Show". The film features cameos from Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Zach Galifianakis, Will Forte, Robert Loggia, Ray Wise and is executive produced by Adam McKay (Step Brothers) and Ferrell. "Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie" will be available on demand on January 27th and hits theaters in limited release on March 2nd./

For more information on this film, you can visit the film's official website at: http://www.magnetreleasing.com/timandericmovie

Plot Synopsis:

An all new feature film from the twisted minds of cult comedy heroes Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim (“Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job”)! Tim and Eric are given a billion dollars to make a movie, but squander every dime… and the sinister Schlaaang corporation is pissed. Their lives at stake, the guys skip town in search of a way to pay the money back. When they happen upon a chance to rehabilitate a bankrupt mall full of vagrants, bizarre stores and a man-eating wolf that stalks the food court, they see dollar signs—a billion of them. Featuring cameos from Awesome Show regulars and some of the biggest names in comedy today

Upcoming Screenings

6:00 pm 1/24/2012 Egyptian Theatre Park City Waitlist Only
11:45 pm 1/27/2012 Library Center Theatre Park City Waitlist Only
6:00 pm 1/28/2012 Broadway Centre Cinema 6 Salt Lake City Waitlist Only

I think by now everyone has figured out that “The Hangover Part 2” is essentially a remake of the first film. This creates a dilemma; do we dislike this sequel automatically because it brings nothing new to the material and its characters? Or do we just accept it for what it is and just have fun regardless? Most sequels are pale imitations of the movies that somehow justified their existence, and they usually have the actors and filmmakers just going through the motions for an easy paycheck. You can either bitch and moan about it, or just put up with what’s on the screen.

For me “The Hangover Part 2” was actually pretty good for a remake, and it helps that the same director and actors are on board for this one. Granted, the law of diminishing returns does apply to this one as the surprise is no longer there, but I did laugh hard at many scenes and that was enough for me. It also threatens to be even raunchier than the original to where you laugh more in shock than anything else. Seeing what they got away with before, this time it looks like they got away with murder.

This time the Wolfpack are messing things up in Thailand, or Thighland as Alan (Zach Galifianakis) calls it (I made that same mistake once). The occasion is the wedding of Stu (Ed Helms) to the love of his life, someone other than Heather Graham (WHA??!!). Both Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Doug (Justin Bartha) are invited, and Alan comes along even though the guys are seriously uncomfortable in bringing him long after what happened in Las Vegas.

Before the wedding, they have a bonfire on the beach with some bottled Budweiser to celebrate. Next thing they know, the three of them (Doug was smart enough this time to go back to his hotel room) find themselves waking up in some disgusting apartment in Bangkok. Alan finds his head shaved, Stu now has that same tattoo Mike Tyson has, and Phil just wakes up all sweaty because he’s just too sexy to do anything that reckless. There’s one big problem though; the younger brother of Stu’s fiancée who went along with them is now missing. Once again, they need to find the missing member of their party before the wedding commences.

The first thing going through my mind when they end up getting hung over again was how can Budweiser beer get our main characters this messed up? Once they come to see the things they did that they cannot remember, I seriously thought that these guys were the cheapest drunks imaginable. They can’t bother to get any Thailand beer instead? They don’t even have to wait for this stuff to be imported to them! Of course, the real reason they got wasted does come to light later on, and it has nothing to do with Budweiser. Regardless, they are none the wiser than last time.

I really can’t talk too much about “The Hangover Part 2” as I’ll simply be giving away the funniest parts of the film. Many of the events that befall our characters do have some resemblance to the original, and some of them come with a seriously eye opening twist. Just when you thought that movies could not be any more shocking or raunchy, this one shows how far the envelope can be pushed.

Zach Galifianakis once again steals the show as Alan Garner, the man child who means well but is seriously demented in the way he gets people closer to him. His endlessly awkward ways guarantee that this wedding will have serious problems, but his reaction to what goes on around him is constantly priceless. You know he’s gonna do something screwy, and the tension that builds up to those moments had me in hysterics.

Actually, the one actor who almost steals the movie from Zach is Ken Jeong who returns as gangster Leslie Chow. For some bizarre reason, he and Alan became really good friends despite the stuff that went down between them in Vegas. Some may find Jeong’s character of Chow offensive, but he is so off the wall and hard to pin down that labeling him as some sort of caricature feels impossible. Under the circumstances, Ken’s bigger part in this sequel was very well deserved.

It’s also fun to see Ed Helms back as Stu, and that’s even though he’s no longer with Heather Graham’s character. Having conquered and left his annoyingly snobby girlfriend from the first movie, he now has to face down his future father-in-law who compares him to rice porridge in front of the wedding guests. What the hell is it about being a dentist that makes one pummel on them like they have no reason to live? Do these characters even known how hard it is to become a dentist?

Bradley Cooper is fun to watch as well, although I can’t understand how he gets out of these incidents relatively unscathed compared to his friends. I mean, nothing bad happens to him right away, but unlike Alan and Stu, all that happens is he wakes up with a headache and all sweaty, ruining a perfectly good white collar shirt. Even when his character acts like a jerk, Bradley still has us along for the ride.

Director Todd Phillips knows what made the first one work, and he keeps things snappy throughout. There is a bit of a lull in the middle where the laughs start to feel few and far in between, but things do pick up by the ending. Regardless of how well we know the formula now, this film is still entertaining from start to finish.

To say that “The Hangover Part II” is not original is beside the point. It’s a sequel, and it’s coming out at a time where Hollywood doesn’t seem to be all that interested in anything original. All that matters is that everyone involved still put on a good show, and many laughs will be had. I don’t know about you but I can’t really argue with that.

I imagine at some point there will be “The Hangover Part 3.” While I’m happy to give these guys a pass for doing the same thing on this one, they may want to take things in a different direction next time. Perhaps they could form a group helping those with hangovers. You know, save them from making complete asses of themselves, and help them cover up their more embarrassing moments. I can see it now:

“If someone’s hung over in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?”

“HANGOVER-BUSTERS!!!”

* * * out of * * * *

How you end up enjoying “Due Date” will depend on how much time you spend comparing it to other road trip movies that it resembles, namely “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” For the most part, it follows the same story and pattern as that film of two guys who are an odd couple in the most inconvenient of ways, and they could not be anymore different from each other if they tried. Of course, they come to see the similarities they share and eventually end up becoming best friends not matter how unlikely it seems. For me, I tried my damndest not to compare the two because there’s no way Todd Phillips (the man behind “The Hangover”) latest film could even come close to topping that John Hughes classic. In the end, it shouldn’t matter because you are just looking to laugh at the movies, and this one certainly delivers in that regard. That’s all that matters, right?

Indeed, I laughed my ass off at a lot throughout “Due Date,” and we’re talking serious belly laughs which I never expect to get as much of like when I was a kid. Pairing Robert “Iron Man” Downey Jr. with Zach “Hangover” Galifianakis turned out to be a terrific piece of casting, and the two work very well off each other.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Peter Highman, an architect of the most seriously high-strung variety. Peter ended up reminding me of myself in junior high and high school when I took things and myself WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. When he comes into contact with Zach’s character of Ethan Tremblay, Peter’s luck quickly erodes as he stupidly ends up on a no fly list and is forced to go cross country by car. You see, Peter needs to get to Los Angeles in the next couple of days so that he can witness the birth of his son. With all other options out the window, he has no choice but to go on a long car ride with Ethan in order to make it to his final destination.

Zach’s character is not all that different from the one he played in “The Hangover” in that Ethan is so socially irresponsible that it makes you wonder if he has anything resembling self-awareness. I mean, we see him masturbating in the car while Peter is trying to get some sleep, and Ethan’s only suggestion is that Peter should close his eyes and not look. Of course, Peter’s problem has more to do with the sound. You can’t help but laugh out of sheer nervousness because the possibility of Ethan accidentally “exploding” over Peter certainly crosses ones mind, and that’s even if he’s not pointing in his general direction.

Robert basically plays the straight man to Zach’s crazy ass character, and they each managed to score laughs without trying to outdo one another which is cool. Zach is especially good here because he plays Ethan in all seriousness, never acting like he is in on the joke. Seriously, there are only a couple of comic actors who can really sell a line like this one:

“Dad, you’ve been like a father to me…”

Zach may very well wear out his welcome by playing this same type of character before he knows it, but you have to admit that he plays this character brilliantly.

Robert Downey Jr. still has his dry sense of humor, and those bewildered stares he shoots off in every other scene are priceless as they reflect our own bewilderment as to what is going on. Robert also has a classic scene in dealing with the annoying kids of a drug dealer which had me in hysterics in that things take an unexpected turn. I guess you can only be nice to kids for so long before you snap. Let’s just hope Peter doesn’t do that to his child when he gets older.

But if there’s anything “Due Date” is lacking in, it is with the screenplay as the characters lack any serious depth. Much of what goes on between Peter and Ethan has the feel of a sitcom which, while making you laugh out loud really hard, after awhile feels somewhat shallow. Zach has a little more to work with as Ethan, but Robert’s character is more often than not made out to be an unlikable prick. If it were another actor instead of Downey Jr. in the part, this could have very likely sunk the picture. I kept being reminded of how Ferris Bueller described his best friend Cameron:

“Pardon my French but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you have a diamond.”

This is where those comparisons between “Due Date” and “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” become hard to ignore. In that one, Steve Martin and John Candy (he is still missed) played two men who were essentially good people but whose trip to Chicago really brought out the worse in both of them. With “Due Date,” these characters are already in a frazzled state and dealing with their own issues. The excursions they have together make their already unbridled personalities even worse, and neither comes out it any different from where they started. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that these guys could ever possibly be friends after all they’ve gone through just to get to Los Angeles.

Going into “Due Date,” we know that it is not an original movie, but we end up being reminded of others which came before it and had such better developed and more memorable characters. But keep in mind, a lot of these criticisms I have of the movie really came to me a couple of days after I saw it. My initial reaction involved a lot of convulsions of laughter, and I am always thankful that there are still some movies that make me laugh to the point where I almost pass out. Where would we be without laughter like that in such hard times?

There are a couple of other actors worth mentioning here as well. Michelle Monaghan plays Peter’s pregnant wife, Sarah. Michelle is always a wonderful presence whenever she is onscreen, but she doesn’t have much to do other than wait around for her husband to show up. It’s always a shame when actresses get stuck with a character they can’t do much with. Juliette Lewis fares better as Heidi, a drug dealer giving Ethan his “medicinal” marijuana. Juliette has been making a comeback in movies, and she looks to be doing really well with this and “Conviction.”

Jamie Foxx is also here as Peter’s friend Darryl, but he’s actually not in the movie for that long. Jamie comes into the movie at around the midpoint and ends up disappearing far too soon. It would have been cooler actually if “Due Date” were a threesome with these actors as Jamie scores some good laughs, especially when he makes an embarrassing blunder while making coffee.

You also have Danny McBride doing his usual scene stealing work as Lonnie, a Western Union employee who does not take well to Peter’s snide remarks and will defend himself despite some physical difficulties (see the movie, and you’ll get what I mean). RZA has a cool cameo at the beginning as an airport screener, and he’s one of the cooler ones you could ever hope to find at the airport. Seeing him get into Downey Jr.’s face was one of the first real highlights.

Seriously, I did enjoy “Due Date” and had a good time. It’s hard not to recommend it as it has good actors and will have audiences in hysterics. But in retrospect, the aftertaste it leaves serves to show that it won’t have the same staying power as other road movies have had. If the script had more depth, it would have been even better than it already was. All the same, if you are looking for some good comedy, it’s hard to pass this one up.

**½ out of ****