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Now THIS is how you make a f**king good comedy. Tropic Thunder rather brilliantly mixes outrageously zany comedy, surprisingly exciting action, and pitch-perfect satire of Hollywood and film-making. Unlike the other comedies of the summer that aimed primarily at a certain target audience (stoners for Pineapple Express, people with good taste for Death Race), this movie can be enjoyed even by people who have no knowledge of the film industry and how it works. But for those of us in the "know", Tropic Thunder plays like some of the very best Entourage episodes play. Honestly, as surprised as I am to say this (since I'm not a huge fan of Ben Stiller's movies), Tropic Thunder is probably the best comedy I've seen since 40 Year Old Virgin - if it may not be quite as laugh-a-minute funny as something like Superbad, it's just a better movie all the way around.
Anyway, I loved this flick. This is a laugh riot from start to finish, even with the last 20 minutes dominated by action scenes (that's one thing Pineapple couldn't figure out, was how to make it's action especially funny). But it's the Hollywood satire that is the most enjoyable, and the most rewarding. I love seeing actors bite the hands that feed them in movies like this. The fake trailers at the beginning of the film are some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen,and as zany and over-the-top as it may seem, it is 100% completely grounded in reality. We've seen trailers like that, and movies like that. It's a great way to open the film because it shows Ben Stiller has done his homework.
The screenplay is excellent not just because it makes you laugh,but because it works on it's own as an actual movie, too. I was surprised to find myself become increasingly involved in the story as it continued, not just distracted by big explosions and funny images.There are some great one-liners in this film, carried by both very broad comedy (the panda scene, the way Steve Coogan leaves the film,every scene with Jack Black) and very specific and pitch-perfect satire, with some really intelligent dialogue (the "full-on retard"scene is, quite honestly, one of the best monologues of the year). The action scenes work on their own merit - they're well filmed, well scored, and are enjoyable enough that they don't take away the laughs as much as most action comedies tend to do.
The acting is also a highlight. Ben Stiller does what he does best,which is to act completely clueless and get big laughs from it. Jack Black goes into super high gear as a coke addict with no coke, and some of the things he says and does in the last half of the movie had me near pissing myself. Tom Cruise is a hilarious surprise, although his profane agent sometimes seemed like a retread of Jeremy Piven's AriGold. Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic, as usual - my God, he must have balls the size of watermelons to try pulling off playing a black man,but he does it by avoiding any possible connotations of racism by instead making fun of method actors who actually try and get away with this stupid shit. It was wise of Stiller and his team of screen writers to put a real black man in the film to verbally prove just how stupid this concept of a white man playing a black man is; it helps them getaway with it. And getting away with it is what this film does best. It joyously tries to offend literally dozens of different groups, and I applaud them for that (the whole "retard" backlash is misguided,because they're clearly making fun of the actors who try and play mentally challenged people, not making fun of the handicapped persons themselves. Still, I can see why people would be upset with this, since many audience members won't get the satire and just laugh at all the retard jokes).
Is the film perfect? No. It's a little choppy in the last half -considering Stiller's character was clueless about the reality of the situation for the whole movie, they never really explain when exactly he clues in and figures it out. And of course the main idea of the director sending these guys out into the real forest is absurd. But who gives a shit? The movie completely delivers the goods by giving us some fun action, a surprisingly involving story, and straight-through laughter. This is not only one of the best films of the year, but one of the best comedies of the decade.
Final note: since when did comedies get so f**king violent?Remember back in the day when comedies were the kind, gentle films people took their grandmothers to? This past summer the three biggest comedies of the season - Step Brothers, Tropic Thunder, and Pineapple Express - were each more violent than Dark Knight, Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man combined, and those were the ACTION films. I'm not saying this as a criticism so much as a perplexed observation - since when did we find the funniest things the most bloody and gory? Are we really that depraved of a society? Or do we just play Grand Theft Auto too much? |
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