Tropic Thunder (2008)

Just what I expected

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A movie about a group of actors subjected to the mercy of the jungle and an organised band of heroin traffickers isn't a typical pitch for a comedy, but man, it really, really works.It's the hilarious performances of the star-studded cast that make the movie so great. The film is blessed with the likes of Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. (as well as many more), all of whom were perfect for their roles; Tom Cruise as a bald, foul-mouthed studio executive and Robert Downey Jr. as a white Australian / black soldier (no, that isn't typo) are by far the funniest performance of the movie, almost every scene the each of them were in had me crying.One thing I will say about the movie, and this isn't a fault per say, is that it goes into maximum overdrive with the gore, action and explosions, and isn't concerned about treading over toes when it comes to what some may perceive as more sensitive topics such as mental retardation and race; the jokes made are obviously not malicious but if you're looking for a clean comedy or have a (very) low tolerance for those kinds of things then you won't enjoy the film. You have been warned.Tropic Thunder is just oozing layers of satire and parody, is jam-packed with an A-list cast, explosions and manages to find that balance between obnoxiously crazy and obnoxiously safe with great success. Easily one of the funniest and most enjoyable movies I've seen in a while, just fantastic.

The story is a secondary thing, acting was the main stuff. Robert D J deserved an oscar. concentrate on the way of acting, the ironical side, and then you can recognise a teather piece, in an unusual way. Of course is "demential", but it is a kind of special one.

There are definitely better movies out there that I hate more than "Tropic Thunder," and using the word hate is definitely too strong a word to describe my feelings, but I have to say it failed for me in almost every way.I loved the idea behind the movie: a bunch of actors accidentally end up in a situation that mirrors their Vietnam War drama, but while the plot is funny the execution of it isn't. The story gets propelled forward by a number of coincidences that aren't comedic in any way, and would alert any of the main characters that something strange was going on. The only character who realizes there's something wrong is Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), but he still ventures out into the jungle with the rest of the cast. There's also not enough humor fired at the parallels between the movie the actors are making and the movie the audience is watching.There are some funny things in the movie, however. Robert Downey Jr. is terrific in his role and has some good back and forth with Brandon T. Jackson, and there's some genuinely funny stuff from every member of the cast, but most of the jokes were misses for me. There are a number of references to other Vietnam War films like Oliver Stone's "Platoon," or the usage of the same songs all of these Vietnam War films have like "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, but they're just references without anything comedic behind it. It's literally just the movie saying, "Hey audience, do you recognize this?"In short, "Tropic Thunder" is a lot of good ideas poorly executed. The cast is all funny at points, and Jack Black is the only one who is annoying, and the characters are all different, but the humor is not very funny and the poor story line shines above everything else.

Ben Stiller is just an awful actor, and in this movie he demonstrates that he is an equally incompetent writer. The movie is unfunny, bland, trite and poorly shot. The story makes no sense, the unraveling of the plot defies credulity, the characters are poorly developed (though they would have NOT been remotely believable even if they were fully developed) and the action sequences are boring. The Hollywood jokes don't even rise to the level of the most hackneyed cliché. Robert Downey, Jr., and Tom Cruise act as if they are cursing themselves for having agreed to do this turkey of a movie. It is truly cruel and unusual punishment to sit through this "Zoolander goes to war" movie. What crime does Mr. Stiller think his audience has committed?