[Movie Review] TROPIC THUNDER
I want you all to take a nice, long look at the picture in this post. There is a cast poster for Tropic Thunder with all three leads on it, but I chose this one specifically because the guy in the picture MAKES this movie. I’ve been on the Downey bandwagon well before some of you Iron Man Johnny Come Latelys ( and I highly recommend you watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang right friggin’ NOW if you haven’t already), so why I am I constantly surprised at just how good he is? I was talking to a friend recently about how Gary Oldman’s performance in The Dark Knight is going unsung, and he said to me, “a good Gary Oldman performance is like the sun rising every day. We are so used to it happening constantly that we take it for granted and forget to acknowledge just how great it really is”. So, Bobby D, consider this my sun salutation to you: you are a god among mortals, pal.
You really need to see this movie just to appreciate what Downey does. He takes what could have been a very offensive character and makes it so funny that you can’t possibly be offended. He’s stellar in this. So, you know that Downey is great, but how is the movie? I am relieved to say that the movie is quite funny, but just how funny you find it to be depends on just how deep your knowledge of films and behind the scenes shenanigans goes. If you’re reading an online movie website like this, I assume that you are a fanboy/fangirl on some level, so you should be fine, but I noticed with great smugness that I seemed to be laughing at certain jokes while the rest of the audience appeared to be a bit confused as to whether they should be laughing or not. This movie is too “inside” for a general audience member to fully understand, but for people who are in or follow the goings-on in Hollywood, this is a perfect send-up of actors, directors, agents…you name it, they skewer it here, to varying levels of success.
By now, you know that the movie centers around a group of vain actors who are unknowingly thrust into the middle of a real-life guerrilla drug war in Vietnam. You may even know that the movie starts with a couple of fake trailers, the best of which features Downey and a very special guest star. What you don’t know is just how precise the parodies and jokes are, so precise that they sailed over the heads of most of the folks in my screening and thus made me feel like a genius:) If you don’t know what went down with the Blu-Ray/HD format war, you may be lost at one point, but never fear. Downey is there to bring you back. You know, I keep mentioning him, but how was everyone else?
A mixed bag. I’m gonna say right now that Jack Black ruins every film he’s in save for School of Rock, and he tries his best to ruin this one as well. Aside from a great campfire scene, he just annoyed me whenever he was onscreen, but even he couldn’t sink this movie. Ben Stiller’s never done that much for me, although I did love Zoolander, and he’s basically up to his old tricks here, so that should tell you all that you need to know about his performance here. He’s not bad, but I didn’t walk away from the movie thinking that he did a great job. He does have the distinct privilege of doing something to a child in the film’s finale that I have DREAMED of doing, but I’ll leave that for you to discover. I really liked Brandon Jackson as Alpa Chino (say the name aloud), the gangsta rapper with a secret, and Jay Baruchel is pretty good as Kevin, the lone sane person in the group. Danny McBride and Nick Nolte are both funny in their roles as a pyro tech and a war vet, respectively, but the performance that everyone will be yapping about, save for Downey, is a certain cameo by a certain loopy A-lister. I’m not gonna say who it is just in case you’re one of the five people who doesn’t know who it is (and I was STUNNED that people in my screening didn’t recognize him. When his name came up during the credits, people let out a gasp. Come on, the eyes and that voice are unmistakable!), but it’s nothing THAT special. He’s funny, but a dude in a fat suit swearing up a storm and dancing to rap music will probably be funny no matter who does it.
So, the performances are funny, but the film is not perfect. Matthew McConaughey has an extended cameo as an agent, and while he doesn’t do a bad job, he does something at the end that so badly reeked of Deux Ex Machina that I had to roll my eyes. And as much as I hate to side with wacky protesters, the entire “retard” subplot WAS too much. I get the statement that the film was trying to make. It’s not making fun of mentally handicapped people, but of the actors who get so into character that they beleieve themselves to be mentally handicapped. That being said, the “Simple Jack” stuff was rehashed over and over to the point that I began to feel uncomfortable watching it. They overdid it, and it ceased to be funny.
But man, that Downey…he is something, and this film would not be half of what it is without him in it. The story is fun, and as someone well-versed in Hollywood, I really loved this movie and the statements that it makes. There is some stuff that could have been cut down, but overall, this is a great flick. Did I mention how awesome Robert Downey Jr. is?
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11 Responses to “[Movie Review] TROPIC THUNDER”
Very funny, the retard stuff didn’t bother me at all.
Just the sheer amount of the “retard” stuff started to get on my nerves. The joke was run into the ground, at least to me.
Thank friggin’ Christ that you rated this Kris! It could have got very frosty between us otherwise, ha ha!
Full respect for the Downey Jnr love BUT I think the only thing this review was missing was a link to my ‘love letter’ of a review for KISS KISS BANG BANG which can be found in the Review Archive on this very site
And what? NO love whatsoever for Steve Coogan in this movie?
Again, I’m seeing this sometime this week! Thursday or Friday I think!
Man, how SWEET was that YouTube video of Downey Jnr? Honestly, that was lovely!
So there ARE decent people out in MovieLand that don’t have the first name “Tom” and the surname “Hanks” eh?
His behaviour in that video ALMOST make up for that break-in on his neighbour’s home that traumatised the shit out of a little girl
RDJ rocking the stache.
The best thing about that video is that the girl is known on Youtube as a BIG RDJ fan. That was so kind of him to make that girl’s LIFE like that. He didn’t have to talk to her, but he stopped and was incredibly sweet. High class dude right there. THAT is how you treat your ****ing fans. Nothing annoys me more than stories of people mistreating fans.
Robert Downey Jr. cracks me up… he’s got a real knack for not taking himself too seriously
“Nothing annoys me more than stories of people mistreating fans.”
I SO know what you’re talking about Kris!
Harry Dean Stanton once made love to my bum without so much as a caress of my back or a tentative reach around - then left without leaving an autograph (he said “The sperm is the autograph!”) AND never called me again!
So RDJ is “pure class”!
I should know
Ha!
Harry Dean Stanton’s lawyers didn’t seem to think so!
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