Ben Stiller shows no mercy with
Tropic Thunder – everyone is teased, taunted and berated – and despite what you read in the press, his biggest target is actors. Yes, Robert Downey Jr. plays an actor sporting blackface, and Stiller mugs as a mentally disabled fellow in a role known as "Simple Jack," but he's most making fun of the system that churns out such portrayals: Hollywood.
Spoofing Tinseltown is wearing thin these days, but
Tropic Thunder wears the premise fairly well, mostly because actors like Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and Nick Nolte boost the film with over-the-top cameos. There's also an homage to just about every famous action scene you can think of, from
Rambo to
Bridge on the River Kwai.
Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a fading movie star filming the Vietnam epic
Tropic Thunder with five-time Oscar-winning Australian actor Kirk Lazarus (Downey). Speedman is trying to save his career after his Simple Jack bomb, while Lazarus is so committed to the role of a black soldier that he undergoes a medical procedure to darken his pigment. They are joined by drug addict Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), seeking to abandon his flatulent fat-boy image with a "serious" role, and two young actors played winningly by Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson.
Filming does not go smoothly, mostly thanks to the ineptitude of the cocky young director (Steve Coogan). After a genuine threat from the studio boss (Cruise in a not-so-subtle fat and bald disguise), the actors are dropped into the "real thing": they think they are being filmed with hidden cameras in the jungle, but the dangers are real, capped with a face-to-face showdown with drug lords.
Tropic Thunder is all about excess, from helicopter action to mock movie gore. The screenplay, by Director Stiller, the actor Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan of the Coen brothers) sounds like it was crafted by a horny teenage boy with Tourette's. Fart jokes, penis jokes, "retard" jokes - nothing is off limits, and when the action does not outpace the humor, the film can be very funny. Actors like Danny McBride (as a weapons expert) are used to good effect, while Black, despite some zingy retorts, is wasted. He's even given an obligatory running-around-in-his-underwear scene.
Though Stiller oozes his usual dopey charm, Downey steals his thunder with Lazarus, a clear Russell Crowe knock-off who gives new meaning to "getting into character." Lazarus would be damn annoying were Downey not so brilliant and funny playing him. His voice deepened, his eyes widened, Downey can get a laugh here by simply flaring his nostrils. He's not trying to mock a race or culture like Mickey Rooney did as the Asian landlord in
Breakfast at Tiffany's. He's mocking people like Rooney. Or rather, actors who
think they can commit so deeply to a role.
Speaking of mocking, Cruise seems to enjoy swearing like a sailor and dancing like a bastard in one of the film's funniest performances. Perhaps still cringing from the after-effects of jumping on Oprah's couch, he provides the movie's middle third with some zest when everything lulls.
Still, the highlight of
Tropic Thunder is the mock previews and commercials in the opening frames. Speedman, Lazarus and Portnoy all get hilarious faux movie spots, and it may make you wish this satire had saved more laughs for later. No movie should peak in the first two minutes.
B-
