TROPIC THUNDER

“TROPIC THUNDER” (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte & Special Guest Star Over-rated Actor Trying To Revive A Failing Career That He Should Be Grateful To Have Considering His Lack Of Any True Acting Abilities... Though He Does A Decent Job In This)

First off, the clown that stood, applauded & called out “Oscar winning performance!” at the end of this film is a complete buffoon. I liked this film, I liked it a lot, but I’m also very aware that it has been a long time since I’ve seen a funny comedy, so perhaps this won’t hold up that well when compared to top comedic flicks of past years – just that I was starving to laugh & ‘Tropic Thunder’, particularly Robert Downey, Jr. fed me enough humorous lines & scenes that I ate it all up with relish & mustard & the bun wasn’t stale... Mmmm, hot dogs! Oh, where was I? Let’s tackle the controversy first; Downey’s role as an Australian actor that undergoes surgery to have his skin darkened to play the black Sergeant in a war movie about a daring POW rescue mission couldn’t possibly be conceived as insulting – To me, he was doing a parody of Daniel Day-Lewis by going to extremes to ‘become’ the person he was playing (Or as the actor/character Kirk Lazarus puts it, “I’m just a dude playing a dude that’s disguised as another dude!”)
Plus there’s ‘actual’ black actor Brandon T. Jackson (playing rapper-turned-actor Alpa
Chino) on hand to remind Lazarus that he isn’t ‘actually’ black.
As in all Ben Stiller movies, the film could have done without Ben Stiller, but he must be given credit as the co-writer – though many scenes did have that ‘improv’ feel.
Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a mediocre actor lucky enough to latch onto a franchise hit of ‘Scorcher’ movies that, like any Sylvester Stallone series, has gone stale. ‘Tropical Thunder’ is supposed to be his come-back hit, but things aren’t clicking on the sound stage, so director Damien (Steve Coogan) takes his 5 man platoon of actors into the actual Vietnamese jungle to film them in authentic surroundings. This suggestion comes from the author of the script, Four-Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) a Vietnam vet whose hands were blown off during the real-life rescue his screenplay is based on.
Matthew McConaughey plays Tugg’s agent, Rick Peck & for him, this film is a come-back of sorts in that he doesn’t totally suck in it.
As the actors/pretend soldiers make their way thru the jungle, it is Downey’s Lazarus that realizes they are lost and in danger, while Tugg insists the script is still in-play. Tugg is subsequently captured by a child drug overlord & a ransom call is made to Peck.
Jack Black plays drug addict Jeff Portnoy, famous for playing a rip-off of the Eddie Murphy fat farting family flicks, Portnoy is out to prove himself a serious actor; in doing this, Black’s character is the least enjoyable until he gets tied up for his own good by his fellow actors – Portnoy’s bargaining with Alpa Chino to untie him is the funniest scene in the film.
The ‘surprise’ guest actor has the role of movie mogul Les Grossman, a foul mouthed, anything for a buck studio head that ‘dares’ Tuggs kidnappers to kill him & face the aftermath of his wrath... Les’s stance? - the film won’t make money as it is unless the star is killed during its making. This is the role the dork was applauding at the end of the film. It is NOT an Oscar caliber role; Robert Downey, Jr., as he is in almost every movie he’s in, is the best part of this & his performance isn’t even an ‘honorable mention’ Oscar possibility. Like I said, I’m not sure how good this film is yet – other than I liked it because I’ve seen an awful lot of sophomoronic crap this year... It is the funniest of a weak batch of ‘comedies’. The HEAVilY made-up ‘guest star' actor gives one of his better performances as Grossman, but it doesn’t hide the fact that the guy is a weak, vastly over-rated actor – Deserving of an Oscar nod? PLEASE! He was just a dude playing a dude that was disguised as a bald, fat, hairy dude...