Swanner: When you have a comedy with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan and Tom Cruise how could you possibly go wrong...Brian?

Judd: Oh, I don’t know. It could be ruined by sloppy, lazy writing that relies on profane one-note jokes that aren’t that funny but are repeated until you laugh—I call that the “Leno Method”. In addition to the fact, Stiller and Black are normally reasons I avoid a movie. Robert Downey Jr. was the only actor in the movie worth watching as he plays a white Australian actor (think Russell Crowe) who undergoes a skin pigment augmentation to play a Black soldier in the movie within the movie.

Swanner: I'm not a big fan of Ben Stiller as an actor or as a director (he is both here). Acting wise its like watching all the most irritating scenes from his movies and bringing them back as if they were golden. As a director I have to fault him because he should have replaced himself with a better actor. As for the rest of the cast, I liked them. I'm a fan of Jack Black (especially when he's in bikini briefs for long extended scenes) and I think Robert Downey Jr. makes any movie he's in better by him being in it. By the way, the plot of the movie follows a group of spoiled actors being dropped in the Vietnamese jungle to find their motivation for a Vietnam war picture they are starring in. Once left in the jungle they are pursued by drug smugglers but the actor think they are being perused by movie Vietcong

Judd: There is a subplot with Matthew McConaughey as Stiller’s agent back in Hollywood and Tom Cruise in a fat suit as a blow hard movie exec. McConaughey is forgettable and Cruise is funny-ish, I guess. As I said, for me the writing was completely sub-par. The movie aims to offend everyone, but it does it in ways that we’ve seen before. There was only one moment where I thought the writing was creative and actually funny. Of course this is also the scene that is causing quite a bit of controversy among advocates for the learning disabled. I was going to say that much like Stiller, the screenwriters think they’re funnier than they are. Guess who wrote it.

Swanner: I thought the script wasn't the best but that still may have to do with the fact Stiller's delivery sucks. The rest of the dialog is good. The story is a bit obvious but enjoyable with the Hollywood scenes are inserted. Tom Cruise was actually very funny but I was surprised by the language in the movie, most of the hard R dialog comes from him. There has been a lot of controversy over making fun of the retarded and the fact the Downey Jr. in Black face. If you actually watch the movie you'll see that the movie makes the point that actors will change their pigment or play the disable only to win Oscars.

Judd: I just want to mention that there was another screenwriter involved name Etan Cohen who wrote an 11 minute short titled, “My Wife Is Retarded”. I want to throw that out there because I don’t want anyone to think Stiller could be funny enough to pen the “Full Retard” monologue. Maybe I didn’t like it because I’m not easily shocked. Black face in this context didn’t shock me. Tom Cruise dropping a string of F Bombs isn’t shocking. Stiller playacting “full retard” wasn’t shocking. Tropic Thunder is the equivalent of a three year old yelling “Poop!” in room full of adults. The toddler is delighted by the offense while the adults shoo him back into the playroom. Someone should have shooed Stiller back into the playroom.

Swanner: 2 Stars
Judd: 1 Star

Get on da choppah!

Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConnaughey, and Tom Cruise. Directed by Ben Stiller

Before the movie even starts, we’re introduced to fake trailers for films the characters are advertising: Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is an action movie star who has to save an Earth that has been cooled-over in “Scorcher VI: The Meltdown.” Jack Fortnoy (Jack Black) plays every character in a comedy about a family who lives together and farts together in “The Farties: Fart Two.” Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a monk having unholy carnal relations with fellow monk Tobey Maguire in “Satan’s Alley.”

The movie then starts with narration by Nick Nolte (who plays Four Leaf Tayback) who recounts a story about a group of ten guys who went into the jungles of Viet Nam: four of the men came back. Of those four, three wrote books. Of those three books, two were published. Of the two, one got a movie deal…

And so begins the story of the making of the most expensive war movie ever made.

After an opening that’s more than a whiff of “Apocalypse Now,” things go wrong. We’re slowly introduced to the characters: Tugg Speedman is an action movie star whose career is on the skids because of too many “Scorcher” movies, and “Simple Jack,” a box office bomb where he played a mentally handicapped guy who could talk with animals. Jack Fortnoy is a comedian whose renown for farting is only matched by his drug addictions (which includes sniffing glue). Kirk Lazarus is a 5-time Oscar-winning Australian actor who undergoes experimental pigmentation surgery to play the black Sergeant; he never breaks character “until the DVD commentary is finished.” Added to the mix is Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) a hip-hop artist who hocks his energy drink Booty Sweat as well as his protein bar, Bust-A-Nut. Last is Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), the nerdy white guy who did something none of the others did: he actually read the book AND the screenplay.

When director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is threatened by producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) who wants to shut down the production, he turns to the sage advice of Four Leaf Tayback, who tells him, “you gotta put them in the real shit.” Jumping into a chopper the next morning the platoon, along with director, Tayback, and pyrotechnics guy, fly into the jungle. Cockburn tells them that they’re making it “real,” and that cameras are placed in strategic areas to give a gritty feel to the movie. After Cockburn steps on a landmine and blows up, the actors are by themselves with at least 3/5 of them believing what Cockburn said.

As they traverse through the jungle they’re spotted by the Flaming Dragons, an Asian heroin-producing faction. The group winds up separating and Tuggman eventually gets caught and tortured, then made to perform the entirety of “Simple Jack” (“Dodgeball” never made it to their video store?) The rest of the group now must band together and bring back Tuggman.

There ya go. That’s the story pretty much summed up. While everything that was funny was in the movie, the movie has points that are a lot funnier. Like when Tuggman kills a panda (inside movie joke). Or when Lazarus has the “never go full retard” speech with Tuggman. Or when Fortnoy is tied-up to a tree and wants loose, and describes what he would do for the person who helps him out. Or when Lazarus (who looks more like Rayden than a rice farmer) sprays bullets from a machine gun on each arm. Or even when Grossman yells into a phone, “I want you to take a step back and f- yourself in the face.”

Aside from the blatant ripping on “Apocalypse Now,” and “Platoon,” and shallowness of the characters involved, the underlying theme of it all is reality versus fiction. When even the guy who wrote the book the screenplay was based on is a fake, what is real? Where do the lines between fact and fiction lie? Then again, maybe I’m looking too deeply into it all.

While there are some general LOL moments, and some stuff I got that other people didn’t, I felt like I had ordered fast food as opposed to a full meal. Maybe I wanted a little more from the movie, or maybe I was over-hyped. Either way, it was good but not a lot more than surface level.

My grade: B

The film is directed by one of it's main stars, Ben Stiller. His last directorial work came in the form of Zoolander, which was an over the top funny look at the world of fashion and modeling. The game plan didn't change too much this time around even though the plots couldn't be further apart. Thunder is a war movie, well, sort of. Much like Zoolander, Stiller went for over the top humor and situations for laughs, and it more than often did work. Also like Zoolander, it's a clever dig at an industry or group: the previous film as mentioned went after modeling while this targets actors themselves. It's a very funny movie but, I suppose as you could say for Zoolander as well, the laughs are sometimes scattered as the same joke is driven home once too many times.

I was extremely excited to see this film for a few reasons. The first was the trailer which I first saw in theaters and re-watched online many times. It truly cracked me up and the release of the red-band trailer only made the craving to watch this movie worse. But perhaps the best thing it had going for it was the cast, especially the 3 lead roles: Ben Stiller (a very funny actor for years), Jack Black (plays the same sort of role in just about every movie, but he's damn good at it), and Robert Downey Jr. who is coming off his huge success in May's Iron Man. Throw in a few rumored cameos, Nick Nolte (who just looks like a drunk hobo during the movie, as opposed to his actual DUI mug shot), and rising star from Pineapple Express, Danny McBride, well I think it became an obligation to see this movie the day it's released.

The film opens with movie trailers. Not to be confused with actual trailers shown before the movie, but fake trailers for each of the 3 main characters. I honestly think that the very beginning, these trailers, and the very end which I will touch on later, were perhaps the funniest parts of the movie. Stiller's character is a washed up action star like a Stallone who can't get out of the same role even after 6 different movies. Black's characters trailer, perhaps the funniest one, is Eddie Murphy-esque, in that he played every single character: each one obese, and each one farting uncontrollably: the movie was rightfully called "The Fatties." Finally, method actor who takes himself far too seriously, otherwise known as Downey Jr's character is in a forbidden gay romance tale from years past in clergy settings. But after the movie actually started, too many of the funny scenes ran out of gas; whether that was because the trailer ruined them or because the jokes were stretched out a bit, I don't know. However, the middle of the movie as a whole with the actors in the jungle, gets a big long at times. There are some saving graces though.

The first true saving grace for Thunder is Downey Jr., and I wouldn't have expected anything less after being cracked up by a promotional poster. He plays the part perfectly: an Australian method actor who dives into character and never looks back playing the platoons African-American Sargent. He clearly out weighs Black and Stiller for most laughs, and give the man credit: he pulled off a pretty controversial and also difficult comedic role and pretty much perfected it.

Another bright part of the movie is Danny McBride, who now co-stars in 2 of this summer's last few comedic blockbusters: Thunder along with his terrific role in Express. McBride plays Cody, the explosions/effects coordinator. Physical humor aside, he does a fantastic job as a hard core explosions expert (hello Michael Bay), who late in the movie/debacle in the jungle, decides he might want to change professions just a bit.

But this review would be absolutely nothing without mentioning the true star, standout, and MVP of the film. In fact, Tropic Thunder wouldn't have been nearly as funny if it weren't for the roughly 10 minutes of screen time this actor receives. The movie mogul who funds this war film expedition is named Les Grossman: a fat, bald, Robin Williams hairy kind of Hollywood douchebag. The man who plays this fat hairy slob? Tom...Cruise. One of Stiller's good friends, Cruise steals the movie in my opinion, despite being on screen for a tenth of the time as the main actors. You might remember back some years when Stiller dressed up like Cruise for the MTV Movie Awards, well apparently their friendship lasted and moviegoers will be ever so thankful for that. I won't spoil every scene that Cruise's character does, but the last scene of the movie with his character on screen (and plays into the beginning of the credits), is simply golden. Just think the following: Tom Cruise + fat suit + a Ludacris song. It really doesn't get much better. He may be a crazy dude in his personal life, but as an actor he's still got it, whether that be his forte in action films, or this comedic performance that is nailed.

Overall, the film gets off the ground but kind of sputters on its' way up. I believe it had a ton of potential to be better than it was, funnier than it was, but ran jokes out too far. The whole Simple Jack story didn't fit into the movie very well, so the protesters shouldn't even be that mad. Perhaps it was the hype that I had built up and the excitement going into it that let me down a bit, but let's get things straight here: it was still a very fun movie to watch. Stiller is probably funnier as the director of the movie than as an actor, but he's not bad. I certainly give the movie a lot of credit for poking fun at a lot of douchey (for lack of a better word) aspects of Hollywood actors, agents, and well, the industry. It was an over the top approach but the jokes got across and they worked. Each actor certainly had his moments. To not give much away: Downey Jr. the entire time, Black while tied to a tree, and Stiller's interaction with his agent (another cameo by the way). This was a fun movie as mentioned, but unfortunately I don't think it's one I'll remember/be talking about in a few weeks, unlike Step Brothers and Pineapple Express which I'm still quoting to this day. Well, I will remember Tom Cruise's scenes, because they were just epic.

TROPIC THUNDER: (out of 4 stars)

Tropic Thunder, directed by Ben Stiller boasts, an impressive cast including Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., JackBlack, Jay Baruchel, Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and many, many more.

The premise is solid and ripe for humor. Although I do not feel the movie lived up to its full potential, it was, nonetheless, a laugh fest. I honestly think it will be one of those comedies that has high re-watch value and gets better with each successive viewing. I just wish they had gone a little more crazy with the script.

I think it's inevitable to compare Tropic Thunder to Zoolander because of the mocking tone of both films - one a critique of the movie industry, the other a critique of the modeling industry. I think Zoolander wins, simply because it felt a bit more coherent as a whole.

Don't get me wrong, though - Tropic Thunder was a good flick. I'm already reliving some of the funnier moments with those who I went and saw the movie with, which is always a good sign. One of the things I found especially pleasing was the use of fake trailers at the beginning of the film as a mechanism to prep the story and introduce the characters. It was very reminiscent of Grindhouse.

Cruise, Black, and Downey are especially enjoyable.

7.5/10

As a side note, all the "uproar" about the use of the word "retard" is, well, a bit dumbfounding (no pun, etc. intended).

UPDATE:

A web-based world has been created around Tropic Thunder with nine websites (that I know of) set-up for the actors and made-up movies in the film:

http://www.rainofmadness.com
http://www.tuggspeedman.com
http://www.scorchermovie.com
http://www.kirklazarus.com
http://www.satansalley.com
http://www.jeffportnoy.com
http://www.fatties2.com
http://www.codyeffects.com
http://www.alpa-chino.com

Very funny stuff.

If anyone walked out of "Tropic Thunder" and was actually offended, they need to turn down their political correctness meter. This movie takes the movie business and doesn't just satirize it, it completely skewers it. No one in Hollywood is safe, publicists, directors, managers, method actors, comedic actors, action stars, and, more than anyone else, producers are torn to shreds for 107 minutes. After about five seconds of movie, if you don't get the message that "Tropic Thunder" is all about Hollywood excess and the insanity of movie making, then you just don't get movies.

The movie starts off with a commercial for the energy drink, Booty Sweat. It is the official drink of gangster rapper, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). Then, a trailer for "Scorcher"'s I through V, starring Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller). Once that genius action sequel dig is over, there is another trailer for "The Fatties, Fart Two", starring Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black). This is quite possibly the most open insult at another movie star ever because it is clearly mocking Eddie Murphy and his awful, awful fat suit movies. Then, a trailer starring five time Oscar winning Australian thespian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) in "Satan's Alley". Yep...it's about gay monks. See folks? No one is safe here so get over it. Also, pay attention to this trailer as it features a hilarious cameo.

Actually, be sure to pay close attention the entire length of the movie. This will prove to be difficult as you will either need to stop shaking with laughter or drying your eyes. From beginning to end (especially those end credits), this is non-stop comedic brilliance of the highest order. You couldn't ask for a better script from an already done concept of mocking the movie business (see "The Player" or "Get Shorty"). Of course, comedy is all about timing and these actors (other than Downey..."Chaplin") probably have the roles of their lives. Ms. Cinematically Correct even mentioned that Jack Black isn't simply Jack Black here.

Stiller handles the directing duties a bit better than his acting. The best thing about this fake Vietnam movie within a movie is that there are moments in which it seems like a legitimate Vietnam movie. A Vietnam movie with hilarious action sequences, political incorrectness, and hilarious characters, that is. You know, just like "Platoon".

The movie really kicks up a notch when the director with the greatest character name ever, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), takes the advice of "Vietnam Vet"/screenwriter Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) and drops the cast of Speedman, Portnoy, Lazarus, Alpa Chino, and fresh faced Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) in the middle of the Vietnam jungle to make their movie guerilla style. Cockburn and his effects man, Cody (Danny McBride, stealing his scenes), set up cameras and explosives in the jungle. Our actors then find themselves fighting a real battle with Vietnamese heroin farmers, but the actors don't know it's real. Far fetched? You bet. It completely works because these actors, other the naive Kevin Sandusky, are so self-absorbed and obsessed with success (or heroin, in Portnoy's case) that they are willing to go along with the act.

As with most Ben Stiller-directed movies, you can expect many cameos. "Tropic Thunder" doesn't have a lot of them, but the ones it does have are truly inspired. The usually easy-to-hate Matthew McConaughy is perfect as Tugg Speedman's agent, Rick "The Pecker" Peck. Hmm...with names like Cockburn and "The Pecker", you can really see how co-writers Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen, and Stiller feel about directors and agents. However, the best so-called "cameo" appearance belongs to the man playing producer Les Grossman. The cat is out of the bag for this one but I won't ruin it since a woman behind me last night did not know who Grossman was until the end credits. Grossman is vulgar, crude, threatening, uncaring, and completely perfect. It's an inspired performance from an actor who really may have needed it.

Stiller is decent as Speedman. While not particularly offensive, his mentally retarded portrayal of "Simple Jack" isn't that funny and is a dull point in the movie. As I said, Jack Black doesn't pull his normal Jack Black act and really has some hilarious bits as his character goes through heroin withdrawal...because we all know heroin withdrawal is a laugh riot. Jay Baruchel finally gets a role that doesn't require him to be an oddball and this is a huge break for a very funny actor. Brandon Jackson is pitch-perfect as the gangster rapper who isn't quite as street as he seems. He also serves as the counter-balance for...

...Robert Downey Jr. There has been plenty written about Downey this year and pretty much every single word has been 100% deserved. Downey inhabits his character within a character and plays them both beautifully. His eyes alone made me laugh and his performance reminded me of Johnny Depp in the first "Pirates" movie. These are performances that make you forget who you are watching. Downey nails the stereotypical accent and behavior while managing to actually not be racist, but endearing. It's tough for actors to get Academy Award nominations for comedy performances but Downey deserves it.

"Tropic Thunder" is a satire of the highest order. It deserves to be held in the same regard as "The Player", which is much darker than "Tropic Thunder" but not as laugh out loud hilarious. Stiller has plenty of experience in the movie business and was probably the perfect guy to make a movie like this. The chemistry of the cast is fantastic, the script should be in awards consideration, and, boy, that Les Grossman sure has a familiar sounding voice. After learning one of his actors may be killed in the jungle, Grossman lets us all know that "We'll weep for him...in the press." Hollywood is awesome.

After trying his hand at kid-friendly comedy in Night at the Museum and working with the Farrelly brothers for the first time since There's Something About Mary in The Heartbreak Kid, Ben Stiller decided to return to the role of writer/director/actor in his new movie Tropic Thunder. At this point, some people might be feeling that Stiller has become a little overexposed, but Tropic Thunder marks only the second screenplay he has made into a feature film (the first was Zoolander) and only his fourth time directing (the others were Reality Bites, The Cable Guy and Zoolander again). I was actually surprised when I looked up those facts on IMDB, considering for awhile there it seemed like Stiller had a new movie coming out every few months and was having great difficulty dealing with his over-the-top cameo addiction. The fact that Tropic Thunder is only the second movie he's written makes it likely that this will be the first time I've gone to the theater to see Stiller in a film since The Royal Tenenbaums.

The Tropic Thunder trailer starts of like an Apocalypse Now/Platoon ripoff with helicopters flying over explosions and palm trees and soldiers crying out in agony for their fallen comrades. But, when Stiller asks if they can stop filming, even though his hands have been blown off, it becomes clear that Tropic Thunder is a movie about making another movie. We're then introduced to the lead actors: Ben Stiller is Derek Zoolander as an action star, Robert Downey Jr. is an Australian method actor who undergoes a controversial operation to play a black man in the film and Jack Black is a foul-mouthed comedian with a drinking/drug problem. Next, following a suggestion from an extra-grizzled Nick Nolte, director Steve Coogan decides to abandon Stiller and company in the jungle to make their performances more authentic and to teach them a lesson for being such crybabies. Of course, everything goes wrong and the actors end up in a real war with a rural Vietnamese militia. The best part of the trailer is watching Robert Downey Jr. try to be funny without seriously offending millions of people. Tropic Thunder opens August 13, 2008. Check out the trailer at Zuguide.com.

För cirka tio år sedan hade advokat Sam Bowden - spelad av rutinerade Nick Nolte - en klient vid namn Max Cady - spelad av en av mina favoritskådespelare, Robert De Niro. Denne Bowden lyckades inget vidare med det fallet, och först nu släpps Cady fri ur fängelset. Och nu har Cady bara ha en sak på sin agenda - att utvinna en gruvlig hämnd på familjen Bowden! Det är inledningen till den här nervpirrande storyn från 1991.

¤ FILMFAKTA
Titel: Cape Fear
Land: USA
Premiär: Den 13 November, 1991
Manus: Wesley Strick
Regi: Martin Scorsese
Skådespelare: Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker

Hämnden börjar dock relativt lungnt. Till exempel terroriserar Cady familjen Bowden inne i en biosalong när helt omotiverat sitter och gapskrattar igenom en våldsam thriller. Dessutom smyger han runt på familjens gård och snokar, men faktum är att det bara är början på ett brinnande helvete. När Cady förgiftar familjens hund, och dessutom börjar manipulera familjens dotter Danielle (även hon mästerligt spelad, av Juliette Lewis), så är det droppen som får bägaren att rinna över för Sam.

¤ Max Cady, gestaltad av Robert de Niro, söker hämnd

I ett mer eller mindre desperat försök att en gång för alla sätta stopp för Cady så hyr Sam in några torpeder för eliminera sin antagonist. Men det visar sig vara lättare sagt än gjort och mycket snart blir det bara värre och värre..!

Många av mina bästa, första och starkaste filmminnen kommer hemifrån mormor och morfars vardagsrum. Ett bra exempel på det är just Cape Fear. Filmen är riktigt spännande och otäck rakt igenom. Inte alls särskilt våldsam eller blodig, nej inte så, utan mer kuslig på ett smygande och så sakta stegrande vis. Hela tiden känner man av Cadys hotfullhet mot familjen och man kan verkligen förstå deras skräck och paranoia för vad som skall ske härnäst. För både de, och vi som tittare, förstår att de är på väg mot ruinens kant...

Jaha. Var skall man börja någonstans när skall recensera en av sina favoritfilmer? Jag provar såhär: Filmen är så genomtänkt att den aldrig tappar under hela resans gång. Regissör Martin Scorsese gör som vanligt ett strålande arbete och här bevisas det att han och de Niro är Hollywoods starkaste radarpar. Här briljerar de verkligen tillsammans. Varje scen är ett mästerverk!

De andra skådespelarna är också mycket bra. Den lite risige Nolte fungerar utmärkt som Sam Bowden på väg mot ett nervöst sammanbrott, och Juliette Lewis var helt klart värdig de Oscars och Golden Globe-statyetter som hon nominerades för, men inte vann. Men det förringar som sagt inte insatsen i den här filmen på något sätt. Jag tycker att den är ett absolut nödvändigt måste för var filmälskare!

¤ Bilder från orginalet 1962

Lite noterbar kuriosa är att Cape Fear från 1991 är en nyinspelning av orginalet från 1962. Då med stora stjärnor som Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum och Telly Savalas i rollerna. Regisserade gjorde J. Lee Thompson.

¤ Betyg: +++++

Tropic Thunder (2008) 

Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Brandon Soo Hoo, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise

Directed By: Ben Stiller

Tropic Thunder features four things that tend to turn me off of comedies: it's expensive, high concept, heavily reliant on inside Hollywood humour, and it heavily features Ben Stiller. Any of those four elements could be enough to turn me against a comedy, but all four? There probably wasn't much chance that I'd be into this one.

So why see it? Robert Downey Jr's turn as an acclaimed Australian actor who undergoes cosmetic surgery to turn him into a black man to star in the film-within-the-film intrigued me (as Downey Jr has been on fire of late), and I hoped the presence of assorted Judd Apatow-players like Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Bill Hader might help overcome any Stiller-induced shortcomings (I'm about 50/50 on Jack Black in terms of enjoying his films, so his presence is a wash). But mostly, I went because a friend had a free pass and my wife was working that night, so it seemed like something to do to kill an evening.

I suppose by that very limited expectation for entertainment, Tropic Thunder wasn't a complete failure. But for the most part, my misgivings going into the film were confirmed by the film itself. The expensive thing isn't a snobbish response to blockbuster movies, but rather is because with comedies, laughter can't be bought. Other than talent expenses, humour is a cheap commodity, so what tends to happen with big budget comedies is that the focus that should go into finding the humour goes elsewhere (in the case of this film, it's a lot of explosions and location costs, along with the three stars I'm guessing) and the total cost of the film seems to have an inverse relationship on the amount of laughs to be had (a great example of this would be last year's flop Evan Almighty). At an estimated $70 million budget, Tropic Thunder isn't egregiously expensive, but you can definitely see the money on screen where I'd prefer to see humour (by comparison, Pineapple Express, another action-comedy, had an estimated budget of $25 million).

As for high concept, I find comedies that rely on high concepts often lose the jokes in the attempt to tell thin stories that can't sustain through full movies. Tropic Thunder definitely fits that description. The movie follows a big Hollywood production on location as it attempts to film a prestige adaptation of a Vietnam War book. The production is way overbudget due to the difficulties brought on by primadonna stars like Stiller's action hero Tugg Speedman, Downey Jr's method acting Kirk Lazarus, and Black's drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy. When director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) tries to bring the production back under budget by stranding his actors out in the jungle in an attempt to film the action guerrilla-style, hilarity ensues when they run into real guerrilla fighters, who confuse the actors with soldiers while the actors confuse them as part of the movie.

Which brings me to my biggest problem with the movie, the movie-within-the-movie thing that rarely works. Hollywood loves making movies about itself, even though it has rarely been proved that many people outside of Hollywood gives a damn. It doesn't help that the satire rarely rises above the obvious "movie stars are pampered children" or "actors take themselves too seriously" tropes. There isn't much here that hasn't already been done by Entourage, The TV Set, or any of the other Hollywood satires other than the addition of Ben Stiller's annoying exaggerated energy and Robert Downey Jr in blackface.

Downey Jr's commitment to the role that is designed to poke fun at Method actors who take their roles too seriously is impressive. The problem is that the character is basically one long joke, repeated throughout the movie ad nauseum (one notable exception is a conversation between his Lazerus and Stiller's Speedman that dissects the award process, which also was a notable example of original Hollywood satire). Basically the joke is the same as it appears in the trailer: polished Aussie actor plays a jive-talking black man, while his fellow actors (especially actual African-American Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino) remark on how crazy he is to remain in character throughout their ordeal, rinse, repeat.

If I thought it was at all intentional, I'd think the most impressive piece of satire would be the cast's meta way of playing disinterested actors by coming across as disinterested themselves. While Downey Jr puts a lot of work into his character, Stiller is basically doing a slightly-smarter Derek Zoolander warmed over, and Jack Black mostly looks like he's waiting for the check to clear. Oddly, this means that in a film that heavily promotes its three main stars, a lot of the heavy-lifting plotwise falls to Jay Baruchel, who is a highlight of the film.

The absolute highlight, however, is neither Downey Jr or Baruchel, but rather the unadvertised cameo by Tom Cruise. His contribution is uproariously hilarious, as the studio head financing the film-within-the-film. Full credit goes to Cruise, who has spent the last few years looking like the most humourless guy in Hollywood and delivers a role that basically succeeds simply for how stupid he allows himself to look. It's a part that isn't quite funny by itself, but instead is funny because of who is doing it. Replace Cruise with an actual comedian, and it could easily be annoying quickly. But because it's him, the laughter comes in a "oh my god, I can't believe Tom Cruise is doing this" kind of way.

There were a few other laughs to be had in the film, but there were also stretches where I was completely uninterested in the movie, checking my watch to see how much was left. The last thing the world needs is another Hollywood satire, so I expect to see another one follow in Tropic Thunder's footsteps in another year at the least.

If you're a fan of Stiller's previous directorial feature, Zoolander, then I suspect you'll be into this one as well. But be forewarned: once you get past the audacity of Robert Downey Jr as a black man, or Ben Stiller not knowing that his character is no longer in a movie, you'll have to wait awhile for new jokes to surface.

2/5

Related:
King Kong (2005)
TV Set, The (2007)
Zoolander (2001)

“When legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
-The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

In recalling the strange and fantastic existence of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, one must attempt to navigate between fact and legend—the man and the Gonzo, and so forth. This revolutionary discourse eventually became the basis of the good Doctor’s journalistic method and reputation. The Louisville-native would so envelope himself in his story or subject that readers often failed to recognize the difference between Thompson’s version of reality, and their own. Far more challenging was the attempt to then document Thompson’s life and work (following his unfortunate suicide three years ago). Fresh off the success of his Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, filmmaker Alex Gibney immediately dove into the history and legend of Dr. Thompson. Sundance joyously received the resulting biopic—entitled Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson—like a glass of fine Kentucky bourbon. As Gibney’s film now slowly trickles into theatres across the country, audiences have finally learned to taste the overwhelming importance of the legend.

Unfortunately, the documentary lightly glosses over some of the less celebrity-filled facts. For example, Hunter Stockton Thompson grew up, with his two brothers, in an older area of the Louisville Highlands known as the Cherokee Triangle. After World War II, many families moved away from older suburbs like this. When Hunter’s father died in 1952, the three boys chose to stick around the Highlands a while longer. Although he attended both Atherton and Male High School, this part of Hunter’s life appears in Gibney’s film only to spotlight the birth of Thompson’s criminal record. After spending about a month in the Jefferson County Jail (which has now been converted into a Law Library) on accessory to robbery charges, Thompson joined the Air Force and left Kentucky. For the purposes of the Gonzo documentary, Hunter’s legend begins here.

Gibney’s documentary suggests that the key to truly understanding the Father of Gonzo Journalism must emerge from a parade of contradictions. Both Gonzo and last year’s Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride effectively portray him as a master of his own destiny (mostly to shed a more positive light on his suicide). Following the Air Force, Thompson then unexpectedly spent about a year thundering around with Hell’s Angels—arguably the most lawless organization around at the time. What better way to then follow a stint like that than by running for Sheriff? Finally, you top that off with the Doctor’s Fear and Loathing rampage and you have yourself a very complicated individual. While Buy the Ticket spends far more time with this idea, it becomes fairly clear with any review of Hunter’s life story. Gonzo’s implication is that Thompson refused to live by a set of basic expectations or established ethics—he called himself a “freak” and was quite proud of it.

In Gonzo, Thompson’s long-time friend and illustrator Ralph Steadman explains that, for Hunter, life was always “victory or game-over.” Steadman met Thompson when the renegade journalist hired him to help cover the 1970 Kentucky Derby. As well as being the real birth date of Gonzo Journalism, Thompson and Steadman’s piece, The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, marks the documentary’s opening discussion of psychedelic drug usage. The film makes an effort to show not only its effects on Thompson’s writing style, but on Steadman’s illustrations, as well. In fact, one of the most admirable elements of Gibney’s film concerns the outstanding influence of Steadman’s illustrations on the eventual theory and perception of Gonzo Journalism. The translation of Thompson’s work onto the Hollywood screen relied heavily on Steadman’s ink work, especially in the case of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There is a great clip in Gonzo of Thompson on the phone with a prospective Vegas director who wants to include some animated sequences. The Doctor rips the poor boy to shreds, clarifying that he will tolerate no perversion of such an integral facet of the original work. Steadman’s art perfectly reaffirms the visual style already suggested by Thompson’s writing.

Very rarely, however, is the visual style of a documentary ever considered. Some critics have condemned Gonzo’s rather excessive amount of re-enactment scenes. Although they may, at times, make the film seem a bit “cheap” or “forced,” the average viewer may very well not even notice them among the high volume of legitimate archival footage. Furthermore, the after-effects applied to the re-enactments, while designed to help match the rough quality of the real clips, help establish a definitive, overall look for the documentary. The aged, rustic visual style engages the viewer, as actor Johnny Depp fluidly narrates with authentic quotes from Thompson’s work. This directly contrasts the roughness and force of Nick Nolte’s narration in Buy the Ticket. Despite the insightful script by Kentucky native Thomas Marksbury, Nick Nolte’s delivery was accurately described in The New York Times as, “less like an outlaw than a slightly slow student who doesn’t understand the words he is reading.” While waving around a .44 magnum in Gonzo, Johnny Depp proves beyond all doubt his uncanny ability to enliven the late Doctor’s words.

The only other thing that can be said against Alex Gibney’s outstanding documentary is his occasional lack of focus. While Buy the Ticket stays very much focused on Hunter as a writer and an individual, Gonzo relies heavily on the events surrounding Hunter’s life. In detailing Thompson’s coverage of the 1972 election, Gonzo becomes painfully sidetracked in an excess of political history (Richard Nixon, George McGovern, et al.). Subsequently, the film enters a lengthy segment that involves former President Jimmy Carter far more than the Gonzo Journalist who was so affected by him. Nevertheless, this disproportionate tangent does yield a successful climax in its eventual comparison to present day political conflicts. Perhaps, the good Doctor foresaw our current situation and feared for the future of peace, liberty, and that never-ending source of inspiration called the American Dream. If Gonzo Journalism means becoming a part of your own story, then perhaps Thompson felt the contemporary American story was one his legend had already exhausted and endured. Either way, Gonzo tells Hunter’s story as the Doctor hopefully meant for it to be: both the facts and the legend.

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One of the most highly anticipated summer comedy's comes to the theatre August 13th.  Written and Directed by Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder stars an awesome ensemble cast led by:  Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr.  The film is about a group of self-absorbed actors involved in the shooting of the most expensive war movie ever.  After the studio decides to cancel the movie due to the high budgetary issues, the director continues to shoot the movie.  Lacking enough talent and production crew, the director takes the group into Southeast Asia where they encounter a real group of bad guys.  This is where the real fun begins.

You can visit the Tropic Thunder home page to get more details on the movie, see the cast, get some cool social media and interactive downloads, view photos, and much more.  Tropic Thunder is sure to be a late summer action comedy blockbuster from comedy icon writer/director Ben Stiller.  Watch for it coming to a theatre near you on August 13th.  This film is Rated R.

This week is a slow week for new movie releases. I was hoping Tropic Thunder was out this week, but I guess it's official release date is next Wednesday. The premise to the movie is a group of actors shooting a big-budget action flick are forced to become the soldiers they're portraying, due to some 'freak occurances...' Which makes this movie look pretty funny. Especially with Robert Downey Jr. playing a white guy, who's playing a black guy in the movie within the movie. lol... Tropic Thunder also stars Jack Black and Ben Stiller. You can view the trailer here: Tropic Thunder official site

I tend to be hot or cold when it comes to Ben Stiller movies, but so far, the ones he's directed [like Zoolander], I have really enjoyed, so I have decent expectations for this one. 

Add'l Info: Release Date: 8.13.08 • Runtime: 107 minutes • Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material • Photo credit: Merie Weismiller Wallace. © 2008 DreamWorks LLC. All Rights Reserved via allmoviephoto.com