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Tropic Thunder (Stiller, 2008)
Tropic Thunder is Ben Stiller's newest comedy that mocks war films, the way they attempt to play on people's emotions, and the often warped way that Hollywood operates.
Thunder starts off with a bang transitioning into fake trailers of the stars from the real trailers of the movie. Everything there is hilarious and really does a good job at making fun of some of the garbage Hollywood has spit out in the last decade or so. From there we jump right into the filming of the movie.
This movie is expensive, it's behind schedule, and the man financing it isn't happy. The rookie Director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is in a tough place being yelled at by the execs and still trying to juggle all of the egos that come with the talented cast.
The Director can't take it anymore. He wants to get it done and he feels that will only happen if he strips all the luxuries away from his stars and drops them in the middle of the jungle to film the movie.
Co-existence is impossible for this dysfunctional group of stars. The action hero trying to become a legitimate actor, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) the brilliant Australian actor playing a black platoon leader, Kirk Lazarus (The amazing Robert Downey Jr) the drug addicted comedy star who wants more appreciation, Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) the confused rap star who is angry with Lazarus, Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) and the lovable loser, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel)
The group quickly realizes that this isn't a movie anymore. They are being attacked by a group of locals who run a heroin compound. Speedman is the only one who thinks the movie is still going on and is eventually captured. The rest of the group decides to save him before it's too late.
Tropic Thunder is really slow out of the gates. Once the fake trailers are finished, it really has some flat jokes. Not many actually hit. The film finally jump starts when they get dropped in the jungle. There, Robert Downey Jr begins to absolutely shine.
Downey manages to play a sexually confused holy figure, a black man, and an Australian prima donna. And he's absolutely hysterical in every last capacity.
Tom Cruise manages to steal the show away from everyone however as Les Grossman, a billionaire movie mogul with quite the temper and foul mouth. Cruise strips away all preconceived notions the audience undoubtedly has about him and delivers a great comedic performance.
Cruise and Downey really make this movie what it is. What is it? It's a funny movie. A little disappointing in terms of what I was expecting, but there are some laugh out loud moments and the film finishes strong after a slow first half.
The cinematography is surprisingly good. Very good.
Outside of some of the inevitable Scary Movie-esque war parody jokes, Tropic Thunder is a very original, pretty funny, uncompromising mockery of the state of Hollywood and the people that populate it.
Thumbs up to Tropic Thunder.
7.5/10
Tropic Thunder is Ben Stiller's newest comedy that mocks war films, the way they attempt to play on people's emotions, and the often warped way that Hollywood operates.
Thunder starts off with a bang transitioning into fake trailers of the stars from the real trailers of the movie. Everything there is hilarious and really does a good job at making fun of some of the garbage Hollywood has spit out in the last decade or so. From there we jump right into the filming of the movie.
This movie is expensive, it's behind schedule, and the man financing it isn't happy. The rookie Director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is in a tough place being yelled at by the execs and still trying to juggle all of the egos that come with the talented cast.
The Director can't take it anymore. He wants to get it done and he feels that will only happen if he strips all the luxuries away from his stars and drops them in the middle of the jungle to film the movie.
Co-existence is impossible for this dysfunctional group of stars. The action hero trying to become a legitimate actor, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) the brilliant Australian actor playing a black platoon leader, Kirk Lazarus (The amazing Robert Downey Jr) the drug addicted comedy star who wants more appreciation, Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) the confused rap star who is angry with Lazarus, Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) and the lovable loser, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel)
The group quickly realizes that this isn't a movie anymore. They are being attacked by a group of locals who run a heroin compound. Speedman is the only one who thinks the movie is still going on and is eventually captured. The rest of the group decides to save him before it's too late.
Tropic Thunder is really slow out of the gates. Once the fake trailers are finished, it really has some flat jokes. Not many actually hit. The film finally jump starts when they get dropped in the jungle. There, Robert Downey Jr begins to absolutely shine.
Downey manages to play a sexually confused holy figure, a black man, and an Australian prima donna. And he's absolutely hysterical in every last capacity.
Tom Cruise manages to steal the show away from everyone however as Les Grossman, a billionaire movie mogul with quite the temper and foul mouth. Cruise strips away all preconceived notions the audience undoubtedly has about him and delivers a great comedic performance.
Cruise and Downey really make this movie what it is. What is it? It's a funny movie. A little disappointing in terms of what I was expecting, but there are some laugh out loud moments and the film finishes strong after a slow first half.
The cinematography is surprisingly good. Very good.
Outside of some of the inevitable Scary Movie-esque war parody jokes, Tropic Thunder is a very original, pretty funny, uncompromising mockery of the state of Hollywood and the people that populate it.
Thumbs up to Tropic Thunder.
7.5/10