Film Reviews

Tropic Thunder

• Rating:
• Director: Ben Stiller
• Starring: Ben Stiller
• Details: US / 107mins (16).

"Tropic Thunder is my Catcher in the Rye!" Somewhere in Vietnam, action hero Tugg Speedman (Stiller), method actor Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.) and comedian Jeff Portnoy's (Black) new film Tropic Thunder is in trouble: egos are raging war on set, the director Cockburn (Steve Coogan) can't handle the pressure and tough producer Les Grossman is coming down hard. So when war vet Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), whose book the film is based on, suggests taking the cast deeper into the jungle to capture the reality of war, Cockburn gets excited about the guerrilla filmmaking. However, when the cast and crew run into real drug traffickers, the actors still think it's a movie...

Although he doesn't exactly steal comedy back from Judd Apatow et al, Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder is a lot funnier than recent Apatow outings. A parody of Vietnam movies (in particular sacred cows like Platoon and Apocalypse Now) that actually loves the movies its parodying, Tropic Thunder is every bit the blockbuster it sends up, and still takes time to poke fun at a vicious Hollywood with the balding, fat producer and Mathew McConaughey's zealous agent a delight. It's Downey Jr.'s method actor ("I don't drop character until the DVD commentary.") who gets all the laughs, however. So committed to the role, his Kirk Lazarus underwent a pigment alteration procedure, dips his voice, takes on the role of a Southern black man, and every time he opens his mouth it's funny. The only downside is Black's drug-addled comic; maybe he doesn't have the lines or a character to play around with, but he just isn't funny. Only Jack Black fans will laugh at his antics for no other reason than it's Jack Black.

Don't miss the start, as we're treated to three mock trailers encompassing the stars' previous hits, which are arguably the highlight. There are still a few months to go in 2008, but this could be the comedy of the year.

Review by Gavin Burke