Synopsis

This satirical look at big-studio Hollywood tells the story of the disastrous production of a Vietnam war movie. In an attempt to get the actors to work together, the director inadvertently draws the attention of a Southeast Asian drug ring. The actors and crew must then go to war for real to save their lives.

Pros:

• Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance is great fun.


• There are a hand full of laughs at Hollywood's expense along the way.

Cons:

• Director Ben Stiller can't decide if this is a parody of big-budget action movies ... or if it is just another big-budget action movie.


• Jack Black is as tedious here as he's been in everything he's done since High Fidelity.


• Ultimately, this movie just reminded me of how disappointed I was in Chris Guest's For Your Consideration.

Generally:

Two, maybe two-and-a-half on a five scale. There are three or four decent jokes, and Downey is awesome, but that's not enough to save the picture from it's director.

Extended Review:

I had reasonably high hopes for Tropic Thunder. I am, after all, smack-dab in the middle of the movie's target audience. Movies about the movie industry itself (From The Player to Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back) are usually aimed at devoted movie geeks, like me. If you write about movies at your blog ... or if you visit Ain't It Cool news daily for movie news ... or, if you no longer visit Aint It Cool because now you read a newer, hipper, more underground film site, then Dreamworks made Tropic Thunder for you.

And the whole time I was watching Tropic Tunder I was thinking about For Your Consideration, Chris Guest's awful attempt to essentially cover the same ground. Christopher Guest and his reliable cast of improvisational actors do this kind of satire better than anyone else. But their take on their own industry was an unwatchable mess. So I shouldn't have been surprised that the relatively insubstantial Ben Stiller can't really walk this line, either.

There's an unfortunate quality of restraint about these movies. Maybe the film industry itself is just too close to the heart for Hollywood types to really skewer it. Maybe it's like making fun of your own mother; you might kid and joke with your mom from time to time, but in the end you're going to pull your punches. Of course you are, it's your mom.

So instead of really going for the throat, Stiller has handed in a by-the-numbers light action movie with a few decent "insider" jokes.

Tropic Thunder has come under fire for scenes that may or may not be insulting to mentally handicapped people. My take on the controversy was that the protesters had missed the point. Based on the previews, the movie seemed to lampoon the vacuous Hollywood types who really do exploit the mentally handicapped with heavy-handed movies like I Am Sam and The Other Sister. How is it not insulting when Sean Penn plays a mentally handicapped person and gets an Oscar nomination because he just seemed so retarded? I thought that Tropic Thunder probably aimed to mock that kind of Hollywood hubris.

Now that I've seen the movie I'm fairly surprised to realize that the only minority this movie really does make fun of is Asians. The Asian characters here are straight out of a 1940's Merrie Melodies cartoon. I have to wonder why Asian Americans haven't been protesting the film. Maybe it's because the majority of Asian Americans realize that a mediocre Ben Stiller movie isn't worth protesting.

Still, Tropic Thunder isn't a total washout. There are a few good jokes along the way. Best of all, Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as a "high art" white Australian actor who has "pigmentation surgery" in order to play a black American is absolutely dead-on. This character is one of those "method actors" who refused to come out of character until it was time to record the DVD commentary track. What Downey is doing here is really remarkable. He's satirizing high-concept, "total immersion" acting ... but he's handing in a high concept, "total immersion" performance himself. His character is so full of BS that it's practically seeping out his ears. He thinks he's somehow channeling his "inner blackness," and he can't figure out why the one real black person on the set can't stand him. This is the kind of straight-faced, irony-free performance that makes for good satire. It's very funny, because Downey really is a great actor, but also because the material written for Downey is the best material in the script. Stiller and his co-writers were on target with this character, and Downey plays it right down the middle with remarkable comic success. It's a shame that it's really the only element of the film that works.

There's also a performance by Tom Cruise as a creepy, manic studio head. Ultimately, though, that performance is just a reminder that in real life, Tom Cruise really is kinda creepy and manic. Stiller's performance is very Stilleresque, which is another way of saying that it's totally forgettable. And Matthew McConaughey as an actor's agent is stuck with the role that Owen Wilson was probably supposed to play. Apparently McConaughey and Wilson are interchangeably bland.

And then there's Jack Black. Why does this overrated pantload keep getting staring roles?

Tropic Thunder is a frustrating movie, especially if you're the kind of movie geek that would want to see it in the first place. There was potential here for a very funny, smart, topical film. It just doesn't seem like anyone here really wanted to make that film. Instead, we're left with an uneven action comedy. Been there, done that, lost interest a long time ago.

Trailer:

Labels: Movie Reviews, Movies