Thursday, October 30, 2008

Review: Tropic Thunder a triumphant late Summer comedy

Recently, i was wandering alone at the Times Square shopping center. I am actually looking for the game Little Big Planet but the game haven't been release yet after its delayed. I know about this comedy movie Tropic Thunder are playing at the silver screen. So i went to the cinema and buy me a ticket to watch this movie to spend some time. Now i would like to review the film:



Tropic Thunder is about a small army of such strutting peacocks, a cast of actors off on an acting adventure on the set of a war picture in the jungles of Southeast Asia. In it, a desperate director named Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) trying to make a Vietnam war movie drops his pampered actors into the heart of the jungle. Cockburn's stars include Stiller as an action hero who's starting to make bad career choices, Jack Black as an insecure low-brow comedy star going through heroin withdrawals, and Robert Downey Jr. as an Australian Oscar winner so lost in his "craft" he underwent a procedure to become black for his role. In the jungle, they remain under the delusion that they are still being filmed even after they encounter a dangerous gang of druglords.



Stiller excels as Tugg Speedman, a muscled superstar who has sequelized his franchise as the brawny Scorcher more often than Stallone has dragged Rambo back to the box-office well. Tugg's one attempt to prove he can act, as a retarded, bucktoothed farmhand who talks to animals in Simple Jack, flopped big time. Taking the role of the Rambo-esque John "Four Leaf" Tayback in Tropic Thunder — the name of the film within the film — can be Tugg's ticket to legit. The real Four Leaf (Nick Nolte, looking nuttier than his mug shot) is on set to keep things factual. And Tugg's agent, the Pecker (Matthew McConaughey), is back in L.A. to make sure his client is provided with TiVo even in the jungle (Kauai, Hawaii, standing in for Southeast Asia).



The low-comic ensemble acting in Tropic Thunder is of the highest caliber. Jay Baruchel (Knocked Up) is perfect as Kevin Sandusky, the newbie stuck in a cast of spoiled-brat all-stars. Steve Coogan is deadpan delicious as Damien Cockburn, the British director who is in way over his addled head. And add a big fat shout-out to Pineapple Express madman Danny McBride as Cody, the special-effects techie with an itch to pull the kaboom trigger. Despite having almost blinded Jamie Lee Curtis on Freaky Friday, Cody still wants to blow shit up. And, oh, what fireworks.



The award for best in show has to go to Robert Downey Jr. — Iron Man himself — as Kirk Lazarus, an Aussie actor who has already collected five Oscars for losing himself in his roles, most recently as a priest who lusts to get inside the monk robes of Tobey Maguire. To get inside the skin of African-American Sgt. Lincoln Osiris in Tropic Thunder, Kirk alters his voice and dyes his skin black. This Chicken George routine pisses off Alpa Chino (a terrific Brandon T. Jackson), the hip-hop hitmaker ("I Love Tha' Pussy") hired to bring street cred to the movie, despite merchandising his ass with a "Booty Sweat" energy drink and his "Alpa Chinos" menswear line. Alpa can't stop Kirk from talking black even when the camera stops rolling. "I don't break character till the DVD commentary," says Kirk. Downey has a ball with the role, and his explanation to Stiller about the dangers of going "full retard" if you want to win an Oscar belongs in a comedy time capsule. Downey is so off-the-charts hilarious that you want to stand up and cheer.



There's not even room here to linger on Tom Cruise's eye-catching, image-salvaging romp as a puffy, crude, bald, hairy-chested Jewish producer. Tom Cruise flat out steals this movie every single moment he’s on screen. Cruise doesn’t have a huge role in the movie (maybe about 10 minutes of screen time) but each precious second he’s on screen I was laughing my ass off.



Tropic Thunder is a damn funny movie that gave me about 10 hard laugh out loud moments with about 20 good giggles to back them up with. As a result, I walked out of the theater having been thoroughly entertained. Yes it has a wide variety of weaknesses, but you can easily get past those as you try to catch your breath from laughing so hard. Its worth to watch this movie. I have no idea that Tom Cruise was in the movie, not until the very end of the movie.







I gave this movie, 3 star out of 5.

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