Movie Review: Tropic Thunder

From the moment I heard a father with his 12 year old daughter gasp, to the closing moments of the credits, Tropic Thunder captivated and entertained me like no comedy has in ages. Ben Stiller may not be a comedic genius when left to his own devices, but put him behind the camera with a good script and surround him onscreen with superior actors and the guy makes gold.

First up, let me take a moment to tell the self important politically correct world to drink a tall glass of “shut the hell up” juice. Between folks objecting to the use of Vietnam in a comedy and those upset about the portrayal of intellectually disabled folks, the films gotten a lot of detractors lately. As usual though, I’m guessing these folks haven’t even the seen the flick. If they had, then surely they’d realize that the film is poking fun at the self important Hollywood folks who have milked both ‘Nam and the cognitively challenged for millions of dollars over the last two decades. This is, in fact, the genius of the film.

Stiller has turned the mirror back on to Hollywood in a manner not seen since Altman’s The Player. While that film made several folks in La-la Land squirm in their chairs, I’m thinking Thunder will make the audiences that drive the Hollywood drivel squirm a bit. Nothing is safe here, as Stiller and co-writer Justin Theroux skewer pretentious art house films, big budget action, lowest common denominator comedies, and of course the prestige war film. Someone sitting in front of me, let out a loud laugh at a clip from Jack Black’s fart driven faux film, and then quickly coughed as if realizing the joke was on him.

These challenges to the genre would not work in some hands but thankfully Stiller assembled a worthy cast. Jack Black seems more alive then he has in his recent starring vehicles. As he mentioned in a recent interview, “if not for the grace of God, I could be making Fatties 2.” Stiller does his usual shtick of the oblivious jerk face with a misplaced heart of gold. Nick Nolte delivers a very solid performance as does the McConaughey. Lots of people are already talking about the performance put in by a very famous star in a fat suit and while it’s quite good, Robert Downey Jr. steals the show in an award worthy role. Seriously, I know comedies rarely win but Downey is hands down the soul of this movie and I don’t think I’ve seen a better performance this year.

The final joke of the film is the scale and grandeur it itself displays. At a budget of $90 million, we’re talking about one of the most expensive comedies in history. Thankfully every dollar seems well spent. Whether it’s the massive explosions (believe the Danny McBride hype by the way) or the dizzying ‘Nam cinematography, Stiller gets every penny out on the screen.