Tropic Thunder
During filming of the war film, Tropic Thunder, (based on the book Tropic Thunder by John ‘four leaf’ Tayback) a group of prima-donna actors are making it difficult for first time director Damien Cockburn.
With permission from no nonsense producer Les Grossman , Cockburn takes them into the deep jungle to film a more guerrilla style film.
However, he leads them right into the middle of a real war zone, and the clueless stars think they are still really filming! Now they must “get to safety” by actually getting to safety!
Direction
Big budget, gritty, gruesome and hilarity from Ben Stiller – who matches “real world” with “Hollywood” so damn perfectly. There are so many meta moments with real life stars playing themselves in “movies” within this movie.
Cast/Characters
Ben Stiller plays the role of Tugg Speedman, a super Hollywood star who has played a world savior several times. He also played a ‘severely mentally challenged’ man that he thought would get him an Oscar… it didn’t.
Robert Downey Jr plays Kirk Lazarus, a five time Oscar winning Australian actor – who recently dyed his skin black for the film – and has been “method acting” as a black man… much to the annoyance of one of his black co-stars. It is so ridiculously meta that it even scored him an Oscar nomination.
Jack Black is hilarious as the drug fulled Jeff Portnoy, Matthew McConaughey plays Tugg’s agent and best friend Rick Peck, Tom Cruise has another ‘against type’ as the profanity prone producer Les Grossman (with fat suit, glasses and a bald cap making Cruies almost unrecognisable), Steve Coogan plays the unfortunate director of the film Damien Cockburn, and Nick Nolte plays the double hand amputee “Four Leaf” who wrote the book the film is based on.
Breakdown
Starting with hilariously silly movie trailers, with a celebs not afraid to make fun of themselves (MTV’s best kiss winner Toby Maguire!), the film continues to have a self awareness that for some reason just works.
Despite it inherently being a comedy – there are some graphic moments of violence, that have very dark humour behind it, such as the shocking death of Cockburn – and the oblivious Tugg finding his head.
For the most parts of the film, Tugg is unaware of what is truly going on, with those around him believing that they are actually in danger – with their lead star continuously thinking they are fine and just ‘filming’, which leads to a fair amount of comedy of errors.
There is also quite a good amount of heart to heart, with Kirk’s career advice to Tugg on his recent box office failure of Simple Jack… you never go full R.
Practically every cast member gets their ‘moment’ of an arc, too (Nolte’s Four Leaf is revealed to have made the whole thing up, and never lost his hands), Brandon T Jackson’s Alpha Chino – a womanizer, is actually gay, and Jay Baruchel, a newcomer pines over never having had a girlfriend.
This film is so politically incorrect, but it works. Thank goodness it was made in a time where it was allowed to be made, because it would not be allowed to be made in today’s climate.
As it is so self aware – the score matches the “tone” of the scene. As there are no (major) threats to the characters- when they are in ‘somewhat’ peril… the score that plays around those scenes matches what is being shown. This would be gripping if it were not a down right silly group of men.
There is also a great soundtrack with some very popular songs such as You Can’t Touch This (MC Hammer), I Just Want to Celebrate, and War (both by Friday Night at the Movies).
Overall
Very very funny, but if you are not a fan of right wing comedy, or any of the stars – this will not be for you.
3.5/5
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