Alexander Swob
Staff Writer
2.5 stars out of 5
Ben Stiller, as action star Tugg Speedman, leads an all-star cast in the raunchy and satirical comedy, “Tropic Thunder.” In addition to his lead role, Stiller also directs, writes and produces this ridiculous comedy, which recounts a film crew’s endeavor to create a war film.
Other crazy cast members include Jack Black (“School of Rock,” “High Fidelity”) as Jeff Portnoy, an unfunny and drug-addicted comedian, and Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man”) as Kirk Lazarus, a highly acclaimed, academy-award winning actor.
Due to the incompatibility and insubstantial performances of the actors starring in the war movie, the director in the film, played by Steve Coogan, drops them in the middle of the Vietnam jungle and attaches hidden cameras in various places — aiming to enhance the reality of the situation, thereby achieving a more meaningful film. Everything starts going wrong — with some hilarious results.
Although funny, the few humorous scenes are overshadowed by the continually random and unfunny plot aspects, which plague the film’s potential. Consequently, the film is drained of its initially promising qualities.
Downey Jr., however, is one of the few things in this film. He portrays Lazarus who, in order to fully immerse himself into the psyche of his African American character, receives pigment alteration surgery.
Once the actors realize they are no longer acting in the film, but rather living it, Lazarus still cannot break away from his character role. He continues to portray his African American character throughout most of the film.
Downey Jr. steals the film with his hilarious and ridiculous portrayal of the character in which he is trapped. This insecurity of Lazarus, as revealed by his inability to escape his character, along with the other actor’s psychological issues, is a uniting theme of the film.
Besides Downey Jr. ‘s fantastic acting, and the slight depth of the film, the last decent quality is, admittedly, Tom Cruise.
He plays the satanically-immoral and over-the-top movie producer who wants Stiller’s character to die, in order to collect the insurance money. (It is not surprising that he is fantastic in this role — he is probably just playing himself).
Cruise is a frivolous, yet amusing, addition to the already all-star cast and gives the movie a small boost in positive direction.
Yet, even with humorous performances by Cruise and Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder” is still lacking in plot, often digressing into unfunny tangents with absolutely no relevance This subtracts from the film’s high potential, lowering it to an average comedy.
The panda bear scene, a three-minute scene in which Speedman (Stiller’s character) accidentally kills a panda bear, is an example in which one might think, “What were the writers thinking? This is more random than ‘Family Guy.’”
Perhaps many people will enjoy this type of humor, but it should not be utilized to fill holes in the script or to scrape a few cheap laughs.
The film is random and nonsensical to the point where the potentially laughable scenes desolve into a frown of disappointment, and thus strip the potentially great script of some of its promising qualities.
Although the film will earn a few laughs, and moviegoers will have a decent time at the cinema, when all is said and done, “Tropic Thunder” is a mediocre film and ultimately a disappointing and forgettable summer comedy.
08-25-2008