Tropic Thunder (2008)

Directed by: Ben Stiller
Written by: Ben Stiller/Justin Theroux/Etan Cohen

I’m not really sure what I expected from this movie…but I certainly got it.

But before that, let’s check out a preview.

EAGLE EYE–I think I’ve reviewed this one before, but I’ll do it again. It seems that young Shia LaBeouf is being terrorized by the OnStar lady. She’s telling him exactly where to go and what to do as if she thinks that she’s Morpheus.

I dunno. Maybe I’ll check it out. The last time Shia and director DJ Caruso mined Hitchcock for material (Disturbia), it didn’t turn out too badly. (Shut up! I kinda liked it.)

Ok, so that’s the only trailer they had for us at this sneak preview. But Tim League, owner of the Alamo Drafthouse, had some entertainment going when he had select members of the audience run through The Shit. That would be a hallway with armed guards (including Harry Knowles) shooting paintballs at the audience members. And it was a pretty short hallway. Which means painful fucking welts on said audience members.

It was probably more fun to do than it ended up being to watch.

And then we started in on what was probably the strangest journey I have taken all summer long.

Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is on his way out in Hollywood. His big action epics just aren’t doing well anymore and his one prestige project bombed. So what’s he to do but be in a very risky Vietnam project based on a book by a survivor of the war (Nick Nolte)?

Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr) is an Australian star who gets deep into his roles. And by deep I mean that he becomes his characters. For his character in Tropic Thunder, he had a pigment treatment done so that he could play a black man. (Robert is pretty fucking amazing in this role. It’s not nearly as offensive as it sounds and he pulls it off beautifully.)

Jeff “Fats” Portnoy is a huge star in fart comedies. But his drug problems are starting to take their toll.

Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) is more interested in his ad deals with Booty Juice Energy Drink and Bust A Nut candy bars than he is in his acting career. He also wonders what in the FUCK is wrong with Lazarus.

Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) is about the only person in the film who cares about his acting. He’s sincere, smart and oh so nerdy.

These five men just happen to be stuck on the set of this movie that is destined to be novice director Damien Cockburn’s (Steve Coogan, who seems to be making a career of playing beleaguered directors) only achievement. Nolte convinces him to drop his actors in the middle of the jungle and make them fight their way out, filming the whole experience.

This is when things go really bad. There are heroin growers, kidnappings, torture and NO FUCKING TIVO!!!

Actually, the less said about this movie, the better. It is funny as shit and most of the fun is in the surprises and the pretty amazing cameos and supporting actors.

But it’s more than just that. It’s a complete send-up of Hollywood and its pretensions. Speedman and Lazarus have the age-old fight over Method and just acting. Speedman’s agent is such a cheeseball and insists on the dumbest things for his client. And the producer of the movie is a horrible, horrible asshole.

I refuse to say who played those two roles. I’ll leave it as a surprise since I don’t think they’re in the preview. Suffice it to say that it’s some of the best acting that either of them have done. The producer, especially, put in probably the best and most fearless performance of his entire career. Maybe he should stick to broad, ridiculous comedy from now on and make a fool of himself on purpose instead of by accident like he usually does. His hip-hop dance in his hairy fat suit is really something special. (And I’m not sure, but I think he got hairier and fatter as the movie went on.)

I actually kinda loved this movie. It’s so strange and over the top that it’s hard not to love it. Not only are the characters amazing and masterfully overdone caricatures of actors we have all known, but the script is damn near pitch perfect as a parody of the filmmaking process.

And here’s the really funny thing about this movie: It could be the movie that saves Ben Stiller’s career. Sure, some of his movies have been hits (Night At The Museum), but I’m hard pressed to find people who really liked them. Dodgeball is the last one that a lot of people liked and before that it was probably the very un-Stiller-like Royal Tenenbaums.

His directing career has been even more sparse. The last movie he directed was 2001′s Zoolander, which didn’t really make a dent until video.

I still like Ben and I really hope that Tropic Thunder brings him back into the good graces of the “hip” crowd. It’s gonna be a hard sell, though. Not many people are up for a comedy where someone drops a severed head’s brains onto the jungle floor. (Yeah. It’s just that gross at times. And just that amazing.)

Watch for the other best performance in the movie. Brandon Soo Hoo is hilarious as…um…well, you’ll see him. He’s pretty fuckin’ hard.