Tropic Thunder
The premise is nothing we haven't heard before - A group of actors are shooting a movie, in this case a Vietnam film. Something happens where they find themselves wrapped up in the real thing, and for the longest time, they think they're still making the movie, not realizing the danger they're in. It's the intelligence and the sheer number of big laughs in Tropic Thunder that lifts this film beyond other films using the same idea. Co-writer, director and star, Ben Stiller, is not just content to recycle plots here. He's here to give Hollywood, and everyone in it, a merciless skewering. The fact that he has wrapped up some big names as his co-stars and in cameo roles all but proves just how right he got it with his take on the industry. The film within the film here is an over budget and troubled war film that has its director (Steve Coogan) at the end of his rope. Despite bringing together some of the biggest names in Hollywood, he can't work with their clashing egos. The writer of the book on which the film is based, a grizzled war vet with a hook for each hand (Nick Nolte), suggests they drop the pampered actors into the middle of the jungle, shoot the film with hidden cameras, and make the most realistic war movie ever made.
The main cast includes fading action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), who is trying to revive his career after his attempt at an Oscar-bait drama called Simple Jack, where he played a lovable mentally challenged farmhand, fell flat with critics and audiences. Also along for the ride is multi-award winning Australian method actor, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr), who underwent a controversial cosmetic surgery to change the color of his skin so that he could play a black soldier in the film's platoon. While this could easily be offensive in the wrong hands, Stiller shows his intelligence at the screenplay level by teaming him up with rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), who not only fails to see the logic in casting an Australian in the role of an African American, but frequently calls the method actor on the fact that he continuously stays in character, even when the cameras aren't rolling. It's biting satire on Hollywood's insistence on having a "name" actor in the leading role, no matter how ridiculous it may be sometimes, and it really works here.
Joining the cast is Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a comic actor best known for a series of comedies called The Fatties, where he plays every member of an overweight flatulence-prone family. Finally, there's relative newcomer, Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel). Each of the main cast are obviously based on people that Stiller, and co-writers Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, have had personal experiences with in past films. It's not hard to see the inspiration in a lot of them. Black's Jeff Portnoy somewhat physically resembles late comic, Chris Farley, while his films are obviously modeled after Eddie Murphy's current work. But the movie goes beyond the simple and obvious targets. It's not afraid to expose a mirror to ruthless studio heads, clueless agents, and just about everything the filmmaking community stands for. Yes, it's true that Tropic Thunder is not the first "inside Hollywood" film to look at such things. But rarely do those films match the insight and biting wit on display here.
The plot officially kicks in when the stranded actors come across an Asian pirate drug cartel who take most of the cast and crew hostage, while attempting to kill the others. This leads to a number of ridiculous and over the top action sequences. Much like last week's Pineapple Express, this movie tries to blend laughs with often graphic violence. Heading home from the movie, I wondered to myself why it worked for me here, but not in the other film. A big part I think has to do with the fact that Stiller and his co-stars play their roles as pompous, comedic caricatures. They're just as over the top as the situations they find themselves in, so it does not seem quite so out of place here. The movie finds a consistent tone, wether they're tossing one-liners, or tossing grenades at drug-crazed 10-year-old Asian kids. There's a certain unbridled ferociousness to the comedy that's very admirable here. You get the sense that the cast will try just about anything for a laugh, and although there are some occasional clunkers (a subplot concerning Nick Nolte's character being captured along with the film's explosive's expert, played by Danny McBride, never quite takes off, and is wisely dropped early on), the many jokes that do work deliver such large laughs that it can be easily forgiven.
Though Tropic Thunder frequently flies into the realm of bad taste, the energetic cast keep the atmosphere fun, instead of disheartening. While Stiller, Jack Black, and Steve Coogan as the suffering director all get their share of stand out moments, they are all outshadowed by Robert Downey Jr, who continues his summer winning streak after Iron Man with his riotous portrayal of a man so in love with himself, he fails to see how ridiculous he truly is in his most recent role. It's a risky role, and one that easily could have damaged his career, but he pulls it off by having his character not be in on the joke. He's not making a racial statement, he's making a statement on egotistical actors here. There are also a lot of fun cameos, including a not-so-secret appearance by Tom Cruise as an overweight and balding studio head who curses like a sailor and dances to hip-hop, and Matthew McConaughey as Tugg Speedman's agent, who seems more concerned with hooking his client up with Tivo, as his contract clearly states, rather than his client's own safety.
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