“Tropic Thunder” Review

Filed Under Movies

This movie is so funny, it’s retarded. And I mean that in the best possible way. “Pineapple Express” had left me a little cold last week, so I was kind of jittery going in, worried that all the best jokes are in the trailers. No, “Tropic Thunder” has LOLs in spades. This was one of those comedies that kept me laughing on my way out of the theater, in the car on the ride home, and even now as you’re reading this review.

The film is about a group of pretentious actors filming a bloated Vietnam War epic. Ben Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a hit-starved action hero, trying to restart his career after his serious turn in “Simple Jack” bombed badly; that said, I’d love to see a Tugg Speedman “Scorcher” movie, which we see a fake trailer for at the top of the film. Jack Black is a coked-up comedian, Jeff Portnoy, who typically plays multiple ass-blasting roles in the “Fatties” films, a series that’s a not so subtle dig at Eddie Murphy’s recent output. But it’s Robert Downey Jr. who truly owns the film as Kirk Lazarus, an Australian Method actor who surgically altered his appearance to play an African American role.

In “Tropic Thunder,” filming of the movie-within-the-movie has gone massively behind schedule because of all the trappings of contemporary big-budget movie-making. The self-conscious Speedman can’t cry on cue, while Lazarus blubbers and drools everwhere, like any “serious” actor trying to look unglamorous for Academy voters. Effects man Cody — Danny McBride in a fantastic fro-mullet — levels part of the multi-million dollar set by accident. Tom Cruise as studio chief Les Grossman, a balding brute who curses a blue streak, is inches from shutting the project down. It’s “Apocalypse Now” all over again. Director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is convinced by Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), veteran and author of the “Tropic Thunder” book, to drop his cast in middle of the jungle and shoot the film guerilla-style. Speedman, Portnoy and Lazarus — along with rapper turned actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) — are dumped in what turns out to be the Golden Triangle, the hub of Southeast Asia’s drug trade. But when armed men come at them, the actors think they’re still making a movie.

The plot gives each of these scene-stealers a chance to keep one-upping each other, and everyone’s game. But at the end of the day, Robert Downey Jr. walks away with the movie. He’s third-billed in the credits, but you get the feeling that he’s the hero. It’s sort of fitting that RDJ kicked off the summer with “Iron Man” and now bookends it with “Tropic Thunder.” He delivers in both. I think it’s because he never goes “full retard.”

-Brad Lohan

If you like this post, share it!