Tropic Thunder is one of those brilliant pieces of work that you are
unable to pinpoint exactly what it is. Is it a parody film? There are
obvious nods to famous war movies from beginning to end. The
originality in the performances, writing, and story advance it light
years beyond the parody film genre. Is it a war film? There are
certainly intense scenes, and really well done action, the plot
revolves around our characters
making a war film. Though, we
see the humor to everything, perhaps very similar to what a real action
packed big budget movie set would resemble. It wouldn't be a stretch to
call this a documentary about the making of a movie. The reason this
movie is amazing is because it fits in so many genres and executes each
part perfectly. What is truly impressive is this is Ben Stiller's
directorial follow up to
Zoolander and
The Cable Guy. Needless to say,
he has really out done himself.
For all intents and purposes this is sort of a mockumentary. The
best part of the movie is seeing these characters interact with one
another. While I have never starred in a huge summer movie, the dynamic
between the actors seems realistic. Blockbuster mega action star Tugg
Speedman (Ben Stiller) does everything he can to upstage Academy Award
friendly Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), while hip hop star Alpa
Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) is left wondering where Kirk dreamt up his
stereotypical persona. The first half in the jungle plays on the theme
of ego and insecurity with newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) is
the most level headed normal guy of the group. Audiences immortalize
celebrities when really if you leave four actors and one everyday Joe
in a room (or a jungle) you find out the everyday Joe is more capable
to do anything.
It is a bit of a stretch to imagine that
Director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), War veteran and story advisor
Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), and Special effects supervisor Cody
(Danny McBride) can disappear with the movies five ensemble actors, a
helicopter, and rig a strange jungle with c-4 and cameras, it doesn't
prove to be that huge of a plot hole. The idea of putting actors in a
real jungle, unknowingly with real drug traffickers all to get a
sincere performance is a great idea. Someone could be held captive and
not even realize it.
There are a lot of actors in this movie, and everyone of them is at the
top of their game. It's interesting because I think it's possible the
elements that cause friction with our characters, could possibly be
applied to the actors making the movie. Actors from different movie
backgrounds not wanting to be out done by the other one. Whether it was
friendly, positive, friction or negative, egotistical, insecure
friction is neither here nor there because the end result was a treat.
It is a shame Robert Downey Jr had to compete against Heath Ledger this
year for supporting actor Oscars. If it were never revealed that Kirk
Lazarus was originally a white Australian, I don't think anyone would
have recognized him. Speaking of actors that could go unrecognized is
Tom Cruise. He resembles the Tom Cruise of the good old days,
sacrificing his nice guy swagger and pretty boy looks for the role of
Les Grossman. Jack Black should not go with out mention either. He
sells the role of drug addicted comedy actor so well it almost wouldn't
surprise me to hear he is actually a druggie. The only thing to explain
a movie landing talent like Downey, Black, McConaughey, Cruise, Nolte,
McBride, Jackson, Hader, and Baruchel is the creative writing, and an
eager talented director.
Writers Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux,
and Ethan Cohen blurred the lines
between what audiences imagine to be the actor's behavior when the
camera isn't rolling and what it's really like when they wrote this
movie. As I mentioned earlier the conflict between the characters is
likely an exaggerated look of how the actors really worked. Stiller as
a director and writer was able to push it to believable extremes for
the sake of comedy and making the audience laugh. It goes back the idea
that all fiction stems from some reality holds true in this case. As an
actor it would be loads of fun to be in a movie about making a movie
and act as ridiculous as possible, fulfilling media hype, and rumors
that circle the entertainment business and throw in some personal
experiences. That can get out of hand really quickly and I commend Ben
Stiller for knowing where to draw the lines, keeping the story his
first priority.
Final
It doesn't matter what genre
Tropic Thunder fits into. It falls under
the category of you can never have too much of a good thing. Like all
great movies you can watch it multiple times and it wont get old. Every
time you watch it you will hear a new line that you didn't hear before
because you laughed over it, or you'll catch a reference to a movie
that you didn't before. This movie easily earns best comedy of 2008,
and it earns a spot on my best movies of 2008.