Tropic Thunder Review

Saw a screening of Tropic Thunder tonight and I must say going into this movie I was very excited. I had seen the trailer back in March and knew it had a ton of potential and was just praying that they wouldn't drop the ball like a lot of recent Stiller comedies. Fortunately, Ben Stiller proved that he might be a better director than an actor (The Cable Guy, Zoolander) as Tropic Thunder was absolutely fantastic and right now stands as my top comedy of 2008 (haven't seen Pineapple Express as of this writing).

The movie is about 3 very insecure actors, Ben Stiller plays Tugg Speedman your typical action hero who is in need of a hit pretty badly as his franchise films are starting to die out. Jack Black plays Jeff Portney a cross between Eddie Murphy and Jeff Conaway from Celebrity Rehab. Robert Downey Jr. steals the show as Kirk Lazarus a serious actor who has 5 academy awards and gets lost in every role as he is a method actor. All 3 men are hired to be on a war epic to end all war epic's but the director is a rookie and production isn't going according to plan. This leads to the idea of putting the guys into a remote area of the jungle and to film it guerilla style to get a reality tv style view of the action. As you can guess this doesn't go according to plan and the actors are forced to hold their own against Vietnamese drug dealers.

All of the actors are great in this movie. Stiller plays Speedman as a more intelligent Derek Zoolander type of character who is just dying to be taken more seriously for his work. Jack Black is a little misplaced and under used in the movie as he doesnt seem to have as much going on plot wise as everyone else but still has some very funny parts. Robert Downey Jr. is to this film as Heath Ledger was to The Dark Knight. His performance as an african american sergeant is top notch and he really makes you forget that youre watching a white guy acting as a black guy on the screen. Brandon T. Jackson plays Alpa Chino who is your typical rapper turned actor character and brings some great comedy throughout the film and even shows a more complex side to his alpha male character mid way through, and new comer Jay Barauchel has a stand out performance as Kevin who is kind of the nerdy computer tech guy and the heart of the crew. I can see him getting a lot more work after people see him in this movie. There are also pretty big roles for Tom Cruise (in full make up as studio exec Les) and Matthew McConaughey who plays Speedman's agent and channels his best Ari from Entourage. There are even cameo's from Toby Mcguire, Lance Bass, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and a litany of other stars.

This movie has all of the ingredients of a good action comedy as the fight scenes are done very well and there are nonstop jokes from beginning to end. One of the highlights of the film are the trailers played before the movie which feature all of the actors in their hit roles. Tropic Thunder is a must see for any fan of comedy or even action movies in general. There are so many subtle view points about the state of big budget hollywood films these days and just how insecure and shallow actors and film makers can really be. Stiller knocks another one out of the park as a director, writer, producer, and actor with the supporting cast helping to make Tropic Thunder an instant classic.

9/10