The Nam movie that thunders its way into comedy history
TROPIC THUNDER
I finally dragged my sorry arse to the cinema this weekend and went to see the newly released Tropic Thunder. After seeing the trailers of Robert Downey Jnr playing an white actor playing a black guy in a Nam film… I thought to myself… No way this cant be funny!
The film follows the making of a Vietnam war vets war journal into a big block buster action movie. The star of the film is Tug Speedman (Ben Stiller), yesteryears greatest action hero trying to make a come back. Along side him is Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jnr) that plays a white Australian method actor that has went through surgery to make him black so that he can play the squads african american sargent. Also Jeff Portnoy (jack Black) as the comic relief thats addicted to drugs, Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) rapper turned actor, and kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) as the first time actor/kid.
The film isn’t going to plan and the actors are prone to prema donna hissy fits which ends up costing the production company millions in messed up takes. When searching for inspiration the director (Steve Coogan) turns to the author of the book… a seemingly messed up, twisted vet (Nick Nolte)… His advice is to send them deep into the jungle and film it guerilla style to scare the team into acting more like the real thing! Fearing the reappraisals from his fiery producer who is by the way played by an almost unrecognizable Tom Cruise, the Director decides to take the advice of the vet. But just after dropping them off in the jungle, they become embroiled in a real conflict with a heroine producing guerrilla group deep in the forest. Thinking its all part of the movie the squad gets deeper and deeper into trouble with hilarious effect.
Its not a laugh every minute type of movie, but when the laughs come, they come good and hard! From the scene where Stiller’s character askes Downey Jnr’s to hold his hand, when they have been blown off and all that are left is the tattered remains, to the scene where Speedman runs into a crazed panda in the middle of the night, stabs it to death and wears the skin. This film will have you laughing really hard at times. The one failing I would say is that in the middle the film slows a little, in the laughs and the plot.
Stiller is his usual funny self, complete with trademark stupidness and cheesy face pulling (hey it works for him, im not camplaining), Downey Jnr is awesome as the “taking the character to far” kinda guy and has some classic scenes trying tio bond with the real black man of the squad, Jack Black doesnt lend anything really to the story, giving strength to my opinion that he is a one trick pony.. but what really surprised me was Tom Cruise!!! Yes that’s right, I just said it, Tom Cruise can act people! After 30 years he has finally found his niche… comedy! He plays the over weight, balding and self obsessed monster that is the Producer of the movie. He has a ponchent for Rap music and treating people like shit… He steals the show for me, and to be honest… he was my most hated actor in Hollywood up until today. Any movie that can pull that off deserves a round of applause!
Rating: 8/10
Worth crawling though a mine infested rice paddy to go see.
