TROPIC THUNDER

 

Tropic Thunder is a comedy/action flick starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr. along with a whole slew of celebrity cameos. In the flick, Ben, Jack and Robert play a group of rather pretentious actors who are filming a big-budgeted action blockbuster called--you guessed it!--Tropic Thunder. During filming in what's supposed to be the jungles of Vietnam (since the faux Tropic Thunder is supposed to be based on a book written about the Vietnam War where the book's author--played in typical gruff-esque fashion by Nick Nolte--is supposed to have served), the actors run afoul of a heroin-producing drug cartel of sorts called Flaming Dragon which is led by a wisecracking kid and they have to actually fight their way out of the jungle and from the clutches of Flaming Dragon. Like I said, this film has a slew of cameos, including Matthew McConaughey as Stiller's character's agent in what is actually one of his better performances (and he actually wears--surprise of surprises!--a shirt in this picture!) and Tom Cruise who plays a rather sleazy bald-headed studio executive and offers up one of the most hilarious performances in the flick (and makes you almost--ALMOST--forget all of his batcrap crazy stuff with Scientology and his, uh-hum, marriage to Katie Holmes and jumping up & down on Oprah's couch declaring his, uh-hum, love for Katie and all that and actually reminds film-watchers that he's actually a pretty decent actor). Oh yeah, I think I should note for those who haven't seen the film yet that Robert Downey, Jr. plays a rather pretentious Australian actor who wears--and, no, I'm NOT making this up!--BLACKFACE for his character in the film. (Make of THAT what you will!) As you've probably already guessed by now, Tropic Thunder is NOT for the easily-offended types. For everyone else, it's actually not only a fairly funny flick--the "trailers" at the beginning of the film are, in my opinion, the funniest parts of the film--but it's actually not a bad action flick. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that, if it was just a straight-up action flick, it would be on par with, say, The Expendables (and I'm sure there would be at least SOME action flick fans who would dispute me on THAT!). Best line in the film: "What do you mean you people?" "What do you mean you people?"