Directed by: Ben Stiller
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Jay Burachel, and Brandon T. Jackson
Other Actors of Note: Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise
Plot: Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.
Ben Stiller's movie directing career hasn't been good. Sure he's had "Reality Bites" which was a fairly decent film, and "The Cable Guy" was a misunderstood cult classic, the less said about "Zoolander" the better. But with "Tropic Thunder" he has not only succeeded he has made the best movie of his career directing, acting, and writing.
The story involves a group of whiny successful actors including Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) action hero and star of such movies as "Scorcher" I-VI and his grab at an Oscar with the much panned movie "Simple Jack" wherein he played a mentally challenged farm hand.
Also it features Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) an 8 time Academy Award winner and method actor who undergoes a treatment to play the African-American squad leader.
Then there's Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) comedian and star of "The Fatties" and "The Fatties Fart 2" who has a heroin problem and a complex over the fact that people only enjoy him for fart jokes.
There is also chauvinistic rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and first time actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Burachel)
When in the first 5 days of shooting the movie becomes a month behind schedule Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) , the writer of the book on which the movie-within-a-movie is based, encourages first-time director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) to send them out into the wild for some guerilla film-making.
So they head off into the jungle with only the 5 actors, the director, Tayback, and pyrotechnics expert Cody (Danny McBride) into the jungle. Well unfortunately the crew runs foul of some Burmese or Laotian (it never specifies) drug runners and the film becomes very real.
Ben Stiller as a director has never had a problem dragging in a star studded cast and he's done the same film. The truly remarkable part is that all of these a-listers are at the top of their games.
Ben Stiller does a lot of what he usually does he's the loveable loser/badass in his own mind. However he plays it in a manner that I haven't seen properly since "Mystery Men." He plays it with charm and depth and emotion and you really feel for Speedman as he struggles to be taken seriously and save his dying career.
Robert Downey Jr. is as always hilarious and brilliant. Even after they find out that there is no movie he remains "in character." (which he maintains he does not break until he "does the DVD commentary") his character takes an interesting turn toward the end of film and appears "out of character" for the first time in the last 15 minutes. (In one of the most confusing performances in history Downey Jr. is an American actor portraying an Australian actor portraying an African American platoon leader pretending to be a Laotian farmer.)
Jack Black is also wonderful as Jeff Portnoy the overweight comedy actor with nothing to his credit but a bunch of movies centering on fart jokes. As such he has a serious drug problem and early in the movie loses his stash. If there was anyone who could make heroin withdrawal funny it's Jack Black and he makes it hilarious.
Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino (sound it out) the peddler of "Booty Sweat Energy Drink" and "Bust-a-Nut Bars" a typical chauvinistic rapper is a well put-together and surprisingly deep character who seems to for the most part be putting on an act.
One of the big surprises here was Jay Burachel who is best known as the socially awkward guy with the Mohawk off of "Knocked-Up." He easily plays the most intelligent and likable character in the movie. I was skeptical that he would be anything but a flash-in-the-pan actor but he shows some real potential for the future.
Nick Nolte takes advantage of his drunken grizzled persona as a drunken grizzled Vietnam veteran who wrote the book the movie the characters are making. His lines are all melodramatic and over-the-top and later in the movie a plot turn comes up that makes him more funny than before.
Danny McBride tops his performance in "Pineapple Express" as the pyrotechnics expert Cody who worked on movies that definitely didn't require explosions. Apparently he "almost blinded Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Freaky Friday.'" His usual rockstar/redneck shtick works perfectly as an idiot with a hard-on for explosions. In fact one of his classic moments is where he exclaims the phrase "Big fuckin' titties." before detonating a particularly large explosion.
Matthew McConaughey plays a surprisingly non-douchey part as Speedman's agent/best friend Rick Peck. He's surprisingly likeable and relatively deep for what amounts to little more than a bit part.
But the big show stealer and the best part of the entire movie, and it hurts me deep within my soul to speak these words, is Tom Cruise. Yes, you heard me. Tom Cruise is a highly over-rated actor with not a whole lot going for him and the fact that he's a complete douche doesn't help. Bu Tom Cruise easily plays the best role of his life. There is not one line that comes out of Les Grossman's mouth that is not pure comedy gold.
This is not something that I would typically talk about for a comedy, but the gore effects are well done. "Tropic Thunder" is probably the bloodiest movie released since "Shaun of the Dead" came out.
When the gore is supposed to look fake it looks fake (like in the opening sequence of the actual movie) and when it's supposed to look real it looks very real. And trust me this movie has no shortage of gore, this movie has a hard R rating for a reason.
"Tropic Thunder" isn't really an original idea per se. The concept of actors being confused for their on-screen counterparts and the actors being confused into thinking that what they're doing is all part of a show has been explored to some degree in "The 3 Amigos", "Fright Night", and the upcoming "My Name is Bruce."
What "Tropic Thunder" does that these other movies don't is does one of the best satires of the Hollywood culture ever made. Before the movie we see previews for Tugg Speedman's "Scorcher VI," Jeff Portnoy's "The Fatties Fart 2," Kirk Lazarus' oscar bait movie about two gay monks, and an add for Alpa Chino's "Booty Sweat."
Remember how in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" the entertainment news looked incredibly fake? This is not the case. They actually look like real previews even using the actual trailer voices.
Of course they don't end there. Each of the three main characters is lampooning one or more real actors. Tugg Speedman seems like a combination of Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal, Jeff Portnoy seems to be a combo of Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams as the screwball comedy actor who just wants to be remembered for something other than fart jokes, and Kirk Lazarus is the most obvious of send-up of Heath Ledger (and before anybody sprains their vagina going "Oh my God that is so offensive!" recall that this movie was penned long before Heath Ledger died) as the upstart Australian actor so consumed with his method acting that he seems to have no personality of his own.
Some of the lines are genuinely hilarious from Kirk Lazarus' speech about how an actor should never go "full retard", to Tom Cruises long fuck-laden speeches, to the fact that TiVO saves the day every moment of the movie is comedy gold.
"Tropic Thunder" is one of the best and ballsiest comedies ever made, It's the best movie Ben Stiller has ever made, and it's the best movie all summer. From Harold and Kumar to Mulder and Scully. It's the best movie I have seen all summer and that's including "The Dark Knight."
Yes that's right. I just said it, Ben Stiller beat Batman and anybody who says I'm wrong can get fucked by a big fucking donkey cock. "The Dark Knight" while great still had about 30 minutes too much tacked onto the end and some questionable decisions "Tropic Thunder" has none of this.
"Tropic Thunder" is easily one of the best comedies in the last ten years.
I give "Tropic Thunder" a 5 out of 5. See it, buy it, keep it in a glass case with a laser grid around it. It is THAT fucking good.
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