Tropic Thunder
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 107 minutes Rating: R
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)
Tropic Thunder Accessories
 Wanted (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Full Screen)
Step Brothers (Single-Disc Unrated Edition)
Get Smart (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition)
The Dark Knight (Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition)
Incredible Hulk (Widescreen Edition)
Hancock (Two-Disc Unrated Edition)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Widescreen)
Burn After Reading
Hancock (Single-Disc Unrated Edition)
Tropic Thunder Reviews
Come on people.LAUGH. gives such a stunning performance that you have to watch his scenes over and over again to get all the jokes. This movie is hysterical and Robert Downey Jr.
My feeling is the same as it was for the movie Envy which stared Ben Stiller and Jack Black together. I am sorry, but another check into The Frat Pack, this movie was just trying to hard to be funny, yet it was annoying and obnoxious.and a comedy script was not even present. Its worrisome to see so many 5 star reviews and the reviewers where all over 13 years of age.yikes. To give this movie 5 stars is saying it's a classic right up there with some of the other great 5 star comedies of Duck Soup, Blazing Saddles, Trading Places, Airplane, Caddyshack, and the like. 3 bigs names, and many high profile cameos, this movie is a dud.
I liked the concept about a bumbling film crew in Vietnam making a war movie. Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Michael Downey Jr. do a fine job in this comedy. As the director, Stiller keeps it moving at a healthy pace. Worth a watch.
Don't watch this. What is comical about the line the helicopter is God and I am His Son, Jesus Christ. Blasphemy is where I draw the line. That line comes after suffering through a half hour of filthy language. Save your money and your self respect.
I had high expectations for this movie. Unfortunately, the humour was stupid at best and the movie felt like it was thrown together with little thought
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