Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder: Heart of Darkness

TROPIC THUNDER’S heart of darkness explodes with the shrapnel of irony, a cutting satire that excises Hollywood excess. Full of self-deprecating humor, each character is a shadow of the actor who hides behind the makeup: Robert Downey Jr. pokes fun at his own reputation as a “serious” performer, Jack Black at his penchant for playing “fat” roles, Ben Stiller and his perpetual “full retard” shtick, Nick Nolte as a growling “handless” veteran, and Tom Cruise as a bald slimy Producer with a “RISKY BUSINESS” song and dance homage.

The film begins with faux movie trailers that set up each character’s business persona so it can be deconstructed as the film progresses. Then we cut to what seems to be a serious war drama with shades of APOCALYPSE NOW and PLATOON, but soon becomes apparent that it’s a parody of popular war convention…and it’s played straight! Jets of blood streaming nonstop from a head wound, guts spilled onto the ground, a soldier shot hundreds of times but keeps running, and his comrade that jumps from the helicopter to save him from the onrushing enemy. Of course, the brotherly dialogue as one man lies dying is meant to wrench your heart, and this whole sequence is played to perfect sidesplitting effect.

But as the film progresses, it’s Robert Downey immersed as an Australian playing an American black soldier that carries the narrative weight: Kirk Lazarus must rise from the dead, his true identity hidden by the masks of comedy and tragedy: to save his comrades he must speak with his own voice once again. His dialogue with Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) about his role of SIMPLE JACK is dead-on hilarious, never actually considering his own fault of going “full black”.

A wink to Spielberg’s SAVING PRIVATE RYAN becomes fuel for laughter as Speedman scrambles in the dirt after an explosion, his hearing muffled as time slows down; his friends caught amid a hellish inferno. Finally, this absurd story comes full circle, a nexus of celluloid fiction and reality, and Speedman receives his accolades…for just being himself. Final Grade: (C)

Recommendations: The Birds, Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), Funny Games

All reviews copyright Korova, Ltd. Visit Alex at his Home Theatre Blog, http://korovatheatrepresents.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 2010-03-04 16:15:54 by AlexDelarge

Tropic Thunder

So when heard Ben Stiller was going to be directing a movie... I tough "Great, he's going to kill himself by making a really shitty movie." But after seeing Ben Affleck do pretty good with Gone Baby Gone,I thought I'd give Tropic Thunder a try. Wow, was this an amazing film!



So the film is about a group of actors trying to make a war movie.We have the Oscar winning great actor, the fading action hero, the funny comedian guy and a famous rap superstar. The problem is the director cant control all these big egos and he decides to do something drastic to save the film.



He drops them in the middle of the Vietnamese jungle with nothing but a script and tells them no one goes home until he gets the shots he needs. But after some really funny shit, we find the director dead and the actors genuinely suck in the jungle. Things gets worse when they come across a Vietnamese drug group and are in some series shit. But these actors still think they are acting and that none of this is real.



Tropic Thunder is t it's heart a parody film. It takes on lots of classic war movies and action films like Platoon and Bridge on The River Kwai and turn them into something stitchingly hilarious. It's also a big parody of the whole Hollywood scene these days and I gotta respect Ben Stiller for making a movie that is really bold and still funny at the same time.



From the get go before the movie even starts, I was already laughing my ass off. I'm talking of course about the fake trailers at the beginning of the movie. I just 3 short minutes Ben Stiller literally slaps every aspect of Hollywood in the face.




The lousy fart comedy's starring the comedian who's the flavor of the week. The serious art film that takes every opportunity to say ho much awards it's won. The absurd action movie with stupid deep voice over narrations. And the "musician"who's more clothing line and fragrant products than music. Tropic Thunder is Hollywood making fun of itself and I think some people are gonna be pretty pissed with it. But hey,more pain for them.. more fun for me.



And damn is Robert Downey Jr.amazing in this. What I tell ya'll in the Iron Man review this dude is one of the greatest actors of our time ya'll! Or maybe it's just cause he might be secretly black. I dunno, but wow is he great in this. Imma make a prediction and say that Kirk Lazarus is going to become one of those iconic characters 10years from now. This guy is so fun to watch. It's sad that this performance won't get any big awards cause it really is one of those great acting moments but just cause it's also retardedly funny, it will get overlooked.



And we've got some other great performances to. Matthew McConaughey is great in this film playing a conflicted agent to Ben Stiller's character. Jack Black and Brandon T Jackson are funny as hell. And there's this kid who plays the leader of the Vietnamese drug gang named Brandon Soo Hoo who is one hack of a martial artist. He's got a Bruce Lee future, I guarantee!



And how bad ass was Tom Cruise in this? My man Cruise is back ya'l! He plays Les Grossman a foul mouthed obese film producer that spends most of his time on screen saying f words and going all ape shit on everyone that is near him. Bu I really hated his dancing. Jeez it's enough having a regular to cruise dance, why'd you have to make him bald and add 300pounds on him and then make him do the Michael Jackson crotch trust and shake his ass. Gross!



And this movie also has some great action sequences to. When the movie reaches the third act, it turns into an all out, guns blazing Hong Kong action flick. We get explosions, lotso gun fire, jack black kung fu-ing one kick ass mean kid and Robert Downey Jr speaking Mandarin. Wow Ben Stiller really wrote this movie? He's gotta quit acing and start making more of these cause Imma loving what he's doing.



Great film! Funny as hell! Great parody of Hollywood! Great performance from Robert Downey Jr. And kudos to Ben Stiller! I Predict Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

RATING:8/10

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NicholasC

Tropic Thunder

Is there a movie more parodied than Apocalypse Now? Something about that movie seems to speak to wags in the movie business. Maybe it’s because even the making of Apocalypse Now lends itself to parody; all the self-important madness of Hollywood condensed into one film: the egotistical director, the deluded star, spiralling costs and a set caught mid-Tet offensive. Ben Stiller’s new movie, Tropic Thunder, is a satire of war movies, and it features (lo and behold) a lot of images that may remind you of Brando and co. lost in the jungle. No-one lashes out at their reflection this time around, but most actors will recognise “the craft” in this mirror.

The movie begins on-set. “Tropic Thunder” is three weeks behind schedule. The cast are feuding, the director is out of his depth, millions have just been lost in a premature pyrotechnic explosion, and the head of the studio (Tom Cruise) is apoplectic. The solution, put forward by the movie’s ’Nam consultant, is to put aside all conventional wisdom, fly the cast into the jungle, open fire on them and film what happens. Everyone is just desperate enough to agree to this. After all, veteran action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) hasn’t had a hit in years; Australian Method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) can’t risk breaking character; flatulent comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) craves respectability; and chauvinist rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) needs a new “revenue stream”.

Ben Stiller kills a panda. That’s how far this movie is prepared to go in search of laughs. Not only does Stiller kill a panda; he skins a panda and wears its head for a hat. Whether or not we are meant to infer some veiled critique of American/Chinese business relations from this gag, it’s definitely a good pointer as to the kind of comedy Stiller’s aiming for. This is a Farrelly-brothers-go-to-war satire (think: There’s Something About Mary-ine Corp.). Tropic Thunder has no scruples. Over the course of one hour and fifty-some minutes: Jack Black kicks heroin for laughs, Robert Downey Jr. wears black-face, Tom Cruise says the f-word more than he did in Magnolia and Ben Stiller licks blood from a severed head (severed human head … well, Steve Coogan at any rate. This is besides the panda).

Mostly – even if Stiller does go too far at times – it’s funny. Robert Downey Jr. deserves some kind of award. Downey defuses the potential Al Jolson-ness of his role by simultaneously being ridiculous and hugely likeable. We know, as Downey’s character does, that he’s “a dude playin’ a dude disguised as another dude”, and Downey plays his character so well that you never think of him as anything other than Russell Crowe over-doing it (as usual). There’s a great scene where Downey laughs mid-take and Stiller keeps the flub in. The audience needs an actor to wave at them sometimes – to ease the pressure on a high-wire act.

Will Tom Cruise’s bald, bearded, bullying studio chief be enough to persuade audiences to forgive him for being a Scientologist? It’s possible. Cruise says f— better than anyone (bar Dennis Farina), and he always seems more like a human being when he’s swearing than when he’s quoting L. Ron Hubbard. A joke about his character dancing inappropriately is probably prolonged a bit much, but otherwise Cruise is funny (not “funny” the way he was on Oprah).

Vietnam can’t have seemed that amusing when America was involved the first time, nor even when Francis Ford Coppola was faking Vietnam in the Phillipines. But Apocalypse Now did a lot for ’Nam trauma. It re-told the story of a war badly fought; made it into a mythic war, full of larger than life figures. For actors, the movie’s effect was ten-fold.Apocalypse Now didn’t just create legendary characters, it made actinglegendary. And when something’s that big, you just have to spoof it.Tropic Thunder is as hysterical, over-long and in love with acting as any good Apocalypse Now lampoon should be.  Just one thought: do the Vietnamese make these sort of movies?

TROPIC THUNDER (2008)

BOTTOM LINE: A very strange parody of the film industry that would have worked if it was actually funny, but unfortunately for the most part, it's not. There are a few highlights though, namely a hilarious Robert Downey Jr. and an equally brilliant, if unrecogniseable Tom Cruise.

THE GOOD: Ben Stiller has decided to do inside baseball on the film industry with "Tropic Thunder" and in certain aspects of this film, he has captured the ridiculous nature of the industry through some nice caricatures and dialogue. The film opens with three fake previews, introducing the three main actors who headline the film. The best is Robert Downey Jr's trailer where he plays a monk who discovers his gay longings for another man played hilariously by Tobey Maguire. From there, we're thrown in to the Vietnam jungles where the stellar cast of Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr) are trying to make a war picture but aren't getting very far because they can't find their motivation. Enter Les Grossman (an unrecogniseable Tom Cruise), the financier of the film who threatens the director with all kinds of anguish if he can't get the film back on track. Not knowing what to do, the director has a chat with the man who wrote the book the film is based on, Four Leaf Teyback (played by a straight Nick Nolte). Together, they hatch a plan to drop the cast in to the real jungle with real ammunition and bombs so they can be toughened up. The plan goes pear-shaped when the director steps on a land mine and the cast end up in the hands of a drug cartel led by a mean 10-year old kid (yes, you read that right). Now, the actors are in a real war movie and they have to 'find it' to make it out alive. It's a unique take for a parody, and quite cleverly allows for a certain amount of action which you might not normally expect in a movie like this. However, the absolute best things in this film are Robert Downey Jr and Tom Cruise. The former plays an Australian actor who had a skin pigment transplant to become an African American for his latest role, and the latter plays a foul-mouthed egomaniacal studio boss without a conscience. Downey has a pitch-perfect accent, both African-American and Australian, and somehow also manages to instil the satire that playing such a ridiculous character requires. Almost every time he's on screen it's funny. Tom Cruise also deserves a lot of credit. He looks ugly in this film, but he's funny and almost unrecogniseable. There has been no press on Cruise being in this film and it works to the film's advantage as discovering him in the film is quite entertaining, particularly his opening scene. Nick Nolte is the straight guy in the film and does a great job, and Matthew McConaughey is pretty good as Speedman's Hollywood agent. "Tropic Thunder" scores points for trying something different with this genre.

THE BAD: Being a parody you would expect it to be funny. Aside from a few moments here and there (mainly whenever Robert Downey Jr or Tom Cruise are on screen), the film isn't that funny and would have been totally boring if the action elements weren't thrown in at well timed moments to jar our attention back in to the film. "Tropic Thunder" would have worked better if Stiller had made it smart instead of silly. Instead of witty dialogue, we get gratuitous action scenes and ridiculous characters and dialogue. I already mentioned that the chief villain of the piece is a 10-year old kid. Stiller himself isn't that much better, trying to do a self-referential Rambo impersonation but ultimately only has a series of dumb looks on his face. The silliness ultimately undermines how much you can get in to the movie; the silliness would work for a younger audience but the problem is the gratuitous violence on display would prohibit that younger audience from seeing the film. I felt in the end that the film was a wasted opportunity to do something truly original. The idea was there, the cast was there, but the final script and direction were not.

RATING: 6/10

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Moon Minis - Tropic Thunder

Star-studded cast, including writer/director/actor Ben Stiller, presents an action-packed, tongue-in-cheek satire of war films that's heavy on violence but surprisingly low on laughs. The film is entertaining, of course, featuring Stiller's distinct brand of humor, with witty dialogue and twists so ridiculous they're believable, but for the most part, the jokes are more chuckle-worthy than any laugh-out-loud raucous one would expect from a team-up of Stiller, Jack Black, and a black Robert Downey Jr. Black's  role is decidedly lacking here, and when he is on camera, he's delegated to a pathetic drug addict whose sole purpose is to act as withdrawn as possible. Even Stiller's role is minor; it is Robert Downey Jr. who provides the most laughs, with his spot-on, if controversial, performance.

It feels as though the film stretched itself too thin - with such a large cast, an intricate metafictional plot (a movie about making a movie based on a book based on a war), and action sequences that look and feel like serious war films, Tropic Thunder has a hard time focusing on one thing and doing it well. Instead, it has its moments, particularly when mimicking its inspirations (most notable - the use of late 60s, early 70s rock hits), but a lot of the jokes shoot blanks. Adventurous, experimental, but unable to push past the satire.

Last updated: 2010-01-18 23:49:40 by user01

2nd review

The summer of 2008 was a great season for comic book films. Not only did every single superhero flick flourish at the box office, but most of them received critical praise as well (with the exception of Hancock). With all that success revolving around action films, the summer really needed a comedy to round itself off and make it a truly memorable one. Late in August, I reported that Tropic Thunder was the film that fulfilled that need. I mentioned how the performances of Robert Downey Jr, Tom Cruise, and Brandon T. Jackson saved the film from it's somewhat flimsy story. The Academy went as far as to nominate Downey Jr for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as the 81st Oscar ceremony. Even now, I feel this nomination was well deserved as Downey Jr really nailed that role down to a T. Tom Cruise also received a Golden Globe nomination with Downey Jr for Supporting Actor in a Comedy, which was a bit much, but after all, it's just the Golden Globes. Either way, it was not just me that felt some of the performances in Tropic Thunder were praiseworthy.

Last month, I finally bought Tropic Thunder hoping it would be just as funny the next few times around, and I was a little disappointed. Not a significant amount, but there was a definite letdown. All of the performances I once praised were still great and I feel like I will always give them high marks. Downey Jr was just as brilliant to watch the second time as he was the first. Cruise's foul mouthed movie executive Les Grossman was still an outrageous character that provided lots of laughs and that little extra bit of satire. However, all of the negative aspects of the film that I pointed out in my first review became much more evident and harder to avoid this second time around. The problem with comedies is that there are very few of them that have the ability to last. A joke that could have you rolling in stitches the first time you hear it may not even coerce a chuckle out of you the second time. In Tropic Thunder, I remembered most of the jokes of the film, and Downey Jr's performance, although still terrific, was less surprising as the first time. So sadly, there wasn't much opportunity for me to laugh out loud during my second viewing of this film. Instead, I kept noticing how Ben Stiller and Jack Black were uncharacteristically bland and one dimensional. I really noticed how it took the film a very long time to get rolling out of the starting gate. When I saw it in theaters I noticed this as well, but not to this extent.

Tropic Thunder was no one hit wonder though, and I don't mean to imply that. Even on second viewing there were numerous laugh out loud moments and once again, great performances. The biting satire commenting on why actors make some decisions in their career is scarily accurate and still a potent theme. And since the direction can't change from one viewing to the next (only the way you view the direction can differ), the action sequences were still well put together with the perfect blend of violence and comedy. So although it may not be the ideal comedy that will live on forever, and it will probably do nothing else but diminish even more over time, Tropic Thunder is still a good experience, although less of one than I originally thought. My new rating: (6.5/10)

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Just for Laughs

Anyone who saw the trailer will know what to expect from Ben Stiller's latest Tropic Thunder. I was rather thrilled to see Robert Downey Jr in the cast & was looking forward to it. Afterall, it's not often u see him in such a genre.

It's a movie with some movie spoofs (don't think Scary Movies) & this time, lotsa great cameo. It's action, laughter-packed with great cameo appearances. Most notably, there is one amongst the cameo which I thought is a show stealer. I shan't be a spoiler here. I have to say I was rather impressed by the performance, something I don't recall ever seeing such a role in the cameo's filmography.

Unfortunately, the 'on-screen comedian' is the least funny person. Jack Black didn't get to be really funny. It's quite sad to say he's more gross than funny. Ben Stiller is as usual, the 'hero' while RD Jr didn't quite tickle me that much, except on some occasional scenes. Other than that, his presence is not quite felt.

I'd sugget to watch it for some comic relief, but it warrants a $7.50 ticket though. Njoy.