Tropic Thunder (2008) September 29, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Ben Stiller
At a cost of $92 million, Tropic Thunder is a juggernaut in comedy terms, pairing big budget action with a powerhouse comic cast. Billed as a kind of Full-Metal-Apocalypse-Now via Platoon, it makes some scathing attacks at Hollywood stereotypes, and especially the performers who work within that system. Strangest of all though, is seeing all this done by some of the system’s most successful stars.
Its ridiculous plot sees failing action star Tugg Speedman out in the tropics making a Vietnam War movie with first-time director Damien Cockburn. When everything seems to be going wrong, the film’s army advisor convinces Damien to up the stakes for his actors - to make it real. The director takes Speedman, along with the other stars: crude comic Jeff Portnoy, method actor Kirk Lazarus, rapper Alpa Chino, and youngster Kevin Sandusky, deep into the jungle, where they can experience war first hand. With hidden cameras, he plans to recreate a battle environment, but of course, it isn’t long before the movie cast find themselves caught up in a real stand-off with a dangerous jungle-dwelling, heroin-producing gang. Taking it all as part of the movie, the actors stumble into a deadly environment, and give the performance of their lives.
With such a large and varied cast, it’s no wonder that director Ben Stiller has called upon some of the best current comic talent to fill his roster of character types. He himself plays the fallen action hero, desperate to reclaim former glories in a constant succession of stupid sequels. We get Jack Black as the heroin addicted slapstick star, who plays every character in an overweight family comedy that is a non-too-subtle nod to Eddie Murphy’s recent output. Also topping the poster is Robert Downey Jr. in a role as the ’serious’ actor who takes his method to the extreme when he undergoes pigment augmentation in order to play a black soldier.
This bizarre racial twist has potential to be the most offensive thing in the movie, but he is sparingly paired with Brandon T. Jackson, who plays the rapper / actor / entrepreneur of every industry. Then there’s the failing director, played by British comic Steve Coogan, as well as Jay Baruchel levelling everyone else out as the new kid. And that’s just the principal cast. The film also features parts for Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, and, strangest of all, a bullish, foul-mouthed studio head played by non other than Tom Cruise. The more cynical (like me), may see this as a much-needed publicity stunt for Cruise, but on the basis of his performance, it just may have worked.
So, there’s no lack of potential, but how does the film manage that potential alongside a rather silly premise and a multi-million dollar effects budget? Well, for the most part, okay. While it seems redundant to mention the effects of having money on your side, unlike the comparatively low budget action comedy Pineapple Express [review], the visual spectacle here is much more polished and cinematic. In a way, it is almost too clean, often coming off as the glorified Hollywood blockbuster that it is trying to parody. Maybe that’s a credit to the accomplished visual style, which is shown no better than during the fake trailers that form the prelude to the movie.
And it is these trailers, serving as rather inspired character introductions, that form the high point of the film. Complete with relevant studio credits they are quick, satirical and very funny, to the point where they end up creating high expectation for a movie that then struggles to deliver. The script by Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, contains a peppering of witty lines, so while there’s something to make you laugh at regular intervals, it never quite holds up as the rip-roaring comedy it should have been. There’s so much going on at times, the film can seem messy, cluttered even, and it has to work twice as hard to push its comedy to the fore.
With this kind of atmosphere, it’s no wonder that Jack Black is a little wasted in his role, and no more than the sum of his Murphy-baiting parody. While the much-hyped Downey Jr. role is of such ludicrous extremes that it steers itself well clear of offensiveness, and often just ends up being incomprehensible - especially in a audio sense, where the emphasised accents (both in and out of ‘character’) sometimes fail to clearly convey the dialogue. It’s not a huge problem, but since he has most of the funniest lines, you’d be missing out on maximum entertainment if you don’t pay attention.
Tropic Thunder is actually quite an ambitious action comedy, mainly because it doesn’t skimp on the spectacle contingent inherent to the format. Nor is it ever afraid to cross some rather controversial lines - confronting both racial issues and those related to the on-screen depiction of the mentally handicapped. There’s always the risk, of course, that this lack of financial and satirical boundaries will lead to over-indulgence and a reliance on easy laughs, which sometimes occurs during the film’s hour and fifty minute running time. Mostly though, it has done exactly what a comedy juggernaut is supposed to - pull in the audiences, provide some mindless entertainment, and remind you that movies, inherently, are a bunch of stupid nonsense. A point well made.
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