Tropic Thunder Review

Published by Jeff Leins on: August 18th, 2008

As a war movie spoof and a biting satire on movie-making, Tropic Thunder is as clever as it is politically incorrect, but sadly not as funny as I’d hoped.

The sharp script by Justin Thoreaux and the layered direction by a less wacky Ben Stiller strafes Hollywood, taking aim at pampered actors, cutthroat studio execs, over-priced agents, and big, dumb action epics. Some of it may be even a little too inside for the average audience member, but there’s plenty of other bold gags for mass appeal.

The movie is about an embedded action film with the same title, a Vietnam War novel adaptation about a grizzled veteran (played by Nick Nolte) with a pair of hook hands. Starring in the over-budget, behind-schedule production are a group of actors representing each of the familiar cliques within the incestuous Hollywood pool. With soaring costs, the faux director opts to drop the platoon in the middle of the very real and dangerous jungle in order to shoot the movie “guerrilla style.”

While most of the jokes come straight from the purposefully over-the-top caricatures, the seasoned talent assembled keeps it from becoming a typical obvious spoof. In other words, there are no Britney Spears impersonators or dated references for cheap “oh, I remember that movie” laughs.

But with a long list of stars and a complicated premise, the real Tropic Thunder suffers some from equal screen time to its own cast of prima donnas and a mixed bag of rapid-fire genres.

A thankfully more restrained Ben Stiller stars as Tugg Speedman, an action hero burnout trying to reignite his career by spearheading this high-profile project. After financial success with the blockbuster Scorcher and its five sequels, Speedman took out a full-page ad to support panda wildlife before taking this role to prove he can be a serious dramatic actor.

Tugg Speedman is the star of another movie-within-a-movie called Simple Jack, an Oscar bait performance as a mentally retarded farmhand. In the week leading up to the release, oversensitive advocates against the film were a loud minority, drumming up a feeble boycott based on the assumption that the use of the “r-word” is offensive to the retarded community. But on a deeper (less “simple,” if I may) level it’s about Hollywood taking advantage of defenseless targets, like the handicapped, for selfish personal gain. It’s a gag about pretentious actors thinking they can understand the struggles of a real person by pretending to be like them. Any rational observer can see the intent here and any intelligent suggestion otherwise is a deliberate exploitation of its own, using this big opportunity (but weak correlation) to gather massive exposure for an admittedly worthy cause.

Robert Downey Jr. gives a memorable performance as Kirk Lazarus, a decorated award winner and Australian method actor who goes through a “pigmentation alteration procedure” to play an African American soldier. “I don’t drop character until I do the DVD commentary,” Lararus tells another character in his gruff blaxploitation voice. This turn isn’t offensive either because they address the ridiculousness right there in the script. Instead it’s just another example that RDJ is great and he’s the MVP for Summer 2008.

Other soldiers are the fresh-faced rookie (Jay Baruchel), the drug addict/off-the-wall comedian (Jack Black doing an Andy Dick impression), and the rapper/actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), who has more money from his own brand of energy drinks called “Booty Sweat” than from his performances. Supporting roles went to Danny McBride as the overzealous pyrotechnics maniac and Matthew McConaughey as the eager agent, a role originally intended and better suited for the briefly suicidal Owen Wilson.

But the funniest character in the movie is a long cameo from Tom Cruise as a bottom-line studio chief in a fat suit and bald cap. As the loud and vulgar Les Grossman, his Jewish stereotype cares more about the gross of a film than how it gets there. In his first intentional comedy since his star-making Risky Business, Cruise shows he has comic timing and even reminds us he can still bust into a solo dance routine.

With all these players listed above and too many moving parts poking fun where it can, Tropic Thunder is all over the place. But I would still recommend it as an entertaining summer movie to anyone who doesn’t have thin skin.

3.5 out of 5.