Some thoughts of Tropic Thunder Reviews
Tropic Thunder Reviews
And then finally came the movie. Tropic Thunder, bar none, without hyperbole the funniest comedy of the year. Even more than that, Tropic Thunder is most distinct since it’s the first movie Ben Stiller has directed that’s actually, truly funny. Not to say that Cable Guy and Zoolander are horrible films without quirks and slightly amusing moments, but Stiller generally failed with both those flicks. Let’s also not get started on Reality Bites, his directorial debut. With Tropic Thunder, working off a script and story Stiller co-wrote with Justin Theroux (the actor-turned writer who is currently working on writing Iron Man 2), Stiller finally succeeds in delivering a drop-down, knock-out, funny flick that delivers in spades while also being a great Hollywood movie industry riff. 3
Tropic Thunder has been bouncing around in Ben Stiller’s head since the ’80s. His friends all went off and got bit parts in war movies. They’d complain of the rigors of “movie boot camp” and the location shoot. As you probably guessed, he found this absurd. That reaction is the jumping off point for everything in the movie. Tropic Thunder is the comedic tale of a war movie gone horribly, horribly, horribly wrong. Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black play the lead actors in the film within the film. 2
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After the trailers the film shifts right into the middle of a scene from “Tropic Thunder”, the movie that Stiller, Black, and Downey are all now in. Right away Downey starts stealing the scene, and it is almost scary how he looks and sounds almost nothing like Downey. Spouting blood from helmets and intestines falling out of stomachs happen in over the top war movie fashion, and Jack Black ends up hanging from a helicopter. The scene ends with Stiller in the midst of dying and Downey there to console him. This may be a big spoiler for some, so be warned. The hairy, over weight, and now balding billionaire is played by none other than Tom Cruise, spewing the word fuck every chance he can conceivably get. 6
Big budget war movies get the spoof treatment in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, as actors wind up in a life-threatening situation in the vein of The Three Amigos. The action comedy sees three self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film ever, but as ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, an irate director throws them into the real jungles of South East Asia where they come face to face with real weapons, real blood and real pain. Co-written, directed and starring Stiller, it’s an eagerly-awaited and much-needed sideswipe at the genre and Hollywood in general. 1
Ben Stiller hasn?t been behind the camera since his hilarious Zoolander, but he hasn?t missed a beat in that department. He manages to make a balls-out action war film with more explosions than any movie in recent memory–obviously paying homage to such classics as Platoon–but doing it all in the service of a smart comic takeoff on the movie business he clearly knows well. Stiller?s comic canvas, making fun of the whole ?boot camp? Multiple Oscar winner John Toll?s fine cinematography should also get well-deserved credit. With so much extreme mayhem going on, keeping the comedy cooking at top levels is a daunting task Stiller pulls off with aplomb. 5
Stiller apes several Vietnam War movies with the obvious references being “Platoon” and “Apocalypse Now.” “Tropic Thunder” even features the staple of any good Vietnam movie, the classic 70?s rock soundtrack. Yet, “Tropic Thunder” isn?t anything like the idiotic dreck churned out by the “Insert Movie Genre Movie” machine. It doesn?t rely on lazy, random pop culture references. Instead, the film lampoons the movie making process by not just breaking the envelope, but by ripping it into pieces, burning it, and urinating on the ashes. Right away, the audience is thrown into the insane proceedings by a trio of hilarious mock trailers shown before the film begins proper. In fact, “Tropic Thunder” is filled with side-splitting cameos that should be seen to be believed, including a certain A-list star who is nearly unrecognizable as a fat, balding foul-mouthed investor. 7
Tropic Thunder is a full frontal, comedy assault. It doesn?t just present jokes on the screen and then wait for you to laugh, it shoves comedy dynamite up your nose and then giggles while it lights the fuse. Ben Stiller has created a wicked satirical attack on Hollywood, one that pulls no punches and takes a weirdly dark journey deep into the heart of blockbuster filmmaking. Not everyone makes it out alive. 4
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