Review of Tropic Thunder | Coosa Creek Cinema

Thoughts on Tropic Thunder

Sep 5th, 2008 | By Rick | Category: Recent Cinema, Reviews

Tropic Thunder put a little late-summer pizzaz into a fading season, and brought along a bit of baggage to boot. Of course, everybody knows about the “retard” controversy that likely — as these things often do — increased rather than decreased ticket sales. Myself, I can see both sides of the issue: I know how developmentally disabled folks get tired of hearing the “R-word” all the time. It is of course their right to speak out against such things and picket theaters and otherwise raise all holy hell.

But at the same time, after seeing the film, I can say that they are most definitely not the butt of the joke. The butt of the joke is Hollywood and the movie-biz, the very hand that feeds director and co-writer Ben Stiller, and he bites it pretty hard. All of the main characters are recognizable Hollywood types: Tugg Speedman (Stiller) is a fading acting star longing to be taken seriously; Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is the serious, multiple-award-winning actor. He disappears so far into his role that he pigments his skin for his role as a black man in the film-within-film that is the subject of Tropic Thunder. Lazarus plays him like a 70s-style blaxploitation star — although he has the mannerisms down pat, he has no idea what makes the 21st-century African American community tick.

Not so Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), the film-within-a-film’s token black, who is in a supporting role,and very bitter about a black lead role going to a white. The cast is rounded out by Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise, as hilariously-profane studio chief Les Grossman. All play Hollywood stereotypes with great gusto, hungrily chewing the jungle scenery. Along the way they poke fun at war movies (Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan), dramas about the “differently abled” (Forest Gump and Rain Man) and even sci-fi films like Contact. And of course, any shot of Tom Cruise dancing badly alone cannot help but evoke Risky Business.

Tropic Thunder is a funny film, especially early on — like a lot of satires, its good ideas are explored thoroughly by the end of the first act. By the third, as our heroes escape from a Southeast Asian heroin ring, it comes perilously close to becoming the thing it parodies. Still, it sustains itself better than most, and is miles beyond the sub-sophomoric parodies that David Zucker and cronies churn out at a rate of six or seven a year.

Bottom line is, Tropic Thunder is amusing for much of its running length, has some funny performances and above all, it is not based on a comic book. At the end of a mediocre stretch of tentpoles and blockbusters, that’s enough for me.