Tropic Thunder by Ben Stiller (2008)
8 September 2008I had actually wanted to see this since I saw the first trailer. I usually don’t like stupid comedies, but Ben Stiller can be funny, and Zoolander was great. The thing is that Kelly didn’t want to see this, so we stayed away, but when my mom insisted I go see it, I decided to use some of my Arclight points (Guess I won’t be able to purchase the Arclight any time soon) and go see the movie, and I am glad I did. Now it is not a perfect film, but it is pretty damn funny, with an amazing cast, and a budget that is really over the top for a comedy film, in fact this is closing in on the huge summer blockbusters that the film parodies. The whole cast is great, and perfectly cast, from the insane Robert Downey Jr. to Jack Black to Jay Baruchel to Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, Mattthew McConaughey and especially Tom Cruise (wow the pod can really be funny). Sure it slows down at times, but then it also becomes an action film at times, so it kind of changes gears, which makes for some awkward moments, and it is another film that had scenes in the trailer that were not in the feature, but still I quite enjoyed it.
The film starts with a faux commercial for Booty Sweat staring the rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) then three faux trailers, one for the sixth action sequel for over the hill actor Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) and about a farting fat family all played by heroin addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and finally a trailer for the academy award winning actor from Australia Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) as a gay monk who falls for another monk played by Tobey Magquire. The film then cuts to the jungles of Vietnam where the biggest action film of all time is being filmed, it is an adaption of a memoir by a Vietnam Vet who lost both his hands named Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte). The film is directed by Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) and when Tugg can’t cry in a scene with Lazarus (who has had a controversial skin darkening treatment to play the black sergeant, and who will not break character no matter what), the crazy pyrotechnics man Cody (Danny R., McBride) blows the explosives and costs the film $4 Million. The studio producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise bald an in a fat suite playing the evil studio exec to a t) is going to shut them down, so Damien listens to Tayback, and decides to put the actors in a realistic situation, and film guerilla style to finish the film. We also meet Tugg’s agent Rick Peck (Matthew McConaughery) who is doing all he can to get his client a Tivo.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Speedman, Lazarus, Alpa Chino, Jef Portnoy and young actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) who is the only one to have gone to boot camp and to have read the script, are put down in the jungle with director Cockburn who explains things to them, but then gets blown up by a landmine. Tugg thinks it is a trick, and wants to go on, though the others realize it is real, but Tugg was put in control so they follow him.
The thing is they are in the Golden Triangle and run into troops of the Heroin producing Flaming Dragon gang, and actually end up in combat, though the explosions of Cody scare them of the first time, but they think the actors are DEA agents.
Cody and Tayback go to find the director, and get captured by the drug lords.
Portnoy loses his heroin stash and starts going into withdrawals. Lazarus realizes that Speedman is man, and they split from him to get back to the rendezvous point.
Speedman goes on his own and accidently kills a panda, and dresses in it’s skin, and gets captured by the Flaming Dragons thinking he is doing the POW scene from the script. The gang realizes that he is the star of SIMPLE JACK a box office bomb about a retarded man who can talk to animals that Speedman stared in, and which is their favorite film, and they get him to reenact it several times a day. Peck is meanwhile trying to get Grossman to get Speedman released, but Grossman offers Peck a lot of money and an airplane to let him die, so they can collect the insurance.,
The actors stumble on the gangs headquarters, and see Speedman, and decide they should save him, though they have to tie up Portnoy who is wants all the heroin for himself and is losing it. They end up going in with Lazarus speaking Mandarin, and turning in Portnoy, and they attack with blanks, but they manage to get Cody and Tayback, who turns out to not have been in Vietnam, and still has his hands, and Cody uses Exposives to help them escape.
Lazarus finds Speedman, who has lost it, and wants to stay, and Lazarus is starting to admit that he doesn’t know who he is. They manage to get Speedman to go, but he goes back to be with his new son, until the son attacks him, and is wounded and Lazarus, now sans costume, goes and saves him. As they take off they are going to be killed by a rocket, but agent Peck shows up and throws the Tivo, and it catches the bomb, and they are saved. We then see Peck leaving in his new plane.
At the end we see Speedman winning best actor for his role in the movie that was made about the failure of Tropic Thunder. And the film ends with Grossman dancing because of all the money he has made.
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Pretty damn funny, and they even made a trailer for a joke on HEARTS OF DARKNESS about the making of this film. Pretty damn funny.
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