Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: Ur
It's not really a knock to say that nothing in Tropic Thunder is funnier than its first five minutes, so sly that--especially for people watching in theaters--you don't realize right away they are the opening minutes of the movie. This outrageous comedy begins with a series of fake previews, each introducing one of the main characters in the film-proper (not that there's anything proper about this film) and each bearing the familiar logo of a different motion picture studio: Universal, DreamWorks SKG, et al. Such playing fast and loose with corporate talismans verges on sacrilege, but it's an index of how much le tout Tinseltown endorses the movie as a demented valentine to itself. The premise is that the cast of a would-be "Son of Rambo" movie shooting in some Southeast Asian jungle get into a real shooting war with drug-smuggling montagnards. Don't ask--though the movie does have an answer--why such highly paid, usually ultra-pampered personnel as superhero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Mozart of fart comedy Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), hip-hop artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and five-time Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus from Aus-try-leeah (Robert Downey Jr.) should be running through the jungle unattended and very vulnerable. It matters only that the real-life cast has a high time kidding their own profession and flexing their comedic muscles. Bonus points go to Stiller for co-writing the script (with Justin Theroux) and directing, and to Downey, brilliant as a white actor surgically turned black actor for his role and utterly committed to staying in character no matter what ("I don't drop character till I done the DVD commentary").
Be warned: The movie, too, is committed--to being an equal-opportunity offender. Its political incorrectness extends not only to Lazarus's black-like-me posturing but also Speedman's recent, Sean Penn-style Oscar bid playing a cognitively challenged farmboy--or, in Lazarus's deathless phrase, "going the full retard." Others in the cast include Steve Coogan as a director out of his depth, Nick Nolte as the Viet-vet novelist whose book inspired the film-within-the-film, Matthew McConaughey as Speedman's sun-blissed agent back home, and Tom Cruise--bald, fat-suited, and profane--as an epically repulsive studio head. Two hours running time is a mite excessive, but otherwise, what's not to like? --Richard T. Jameson Stills from Tropic Thunder (Click for larger image)
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
shameful:
Blasphemy is where I draw the line. What is comical about the line the helicopter is God and I am His Son, Jesus Christ? That line comes after suffering through a half hour of filthy language. Save your money and your soul. Don't watch this.
Tropic Thunder DVD:
Tropic Thunder arrived in A-1 condition on time. I would purchase from this vendor again.
Repugnant, with Only a Few Laughs to Offer:
This is a "guy's movie." I am not a guy. I think I watched this in error. What I really expected was some tongue-in-cheek, war-lite movie. It is sort of war-lite. Sort of. It's not really that funny -- I guess I expected some Zoolander antics. Oh, there's some of that, but mostly, this film falls flat. With that said, there are some pretty funny things in this movie -- no, very, very funny things in this movie. It's unapologetically offensive throughout. I adored the false trailers preceding the... more info
Not for everyone:
This movie is not for everyone. Some of the blood and guts humor was not funny to me. I know, it is just a movie........just a movie not for me.
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