Tropic Thunder
Ben Stiller just isn't funny. There, I said it. His film Tropic Thunder, on the other hand, is fitfully funny, firing on all cylinders but one—its lousy lead actor.
Stiller does a much more admirable job behind the camera of this war movie farce. Spoiled actors, blowhard producers, gullible directors, phony writers and vacuous agents—all of them make a mockery of the already bloated process of filming a big-budget Hollywood movie.
The cast of Tropic Thunder (introduced via some riotous fake trailers in the beginning)—the action star looking for credibility; the award-winning method actor; the comedian looking for credibility; the rapper trying to branch out into another medium; and the star-struck rookie who can't believe how screwed up everyone else is—are ruining fresh-faced director Damien Cockburn's film. At the suggestion of the Vietnam vet whose story inspired the movie, Cockburn drops his cast in the Laotian jungle in the hope of getting some realistic film out of them before studio chief Les Grossman fires him. Naturally, the cast is stranded there and must actually bond as a military unit in order to survive an encounter with a local drug lord and his army.
This circumstance would seem to provide all the necessary comedy, but in fact it's the events "off the set" which supply the most hilarious moments. There's another great turn from Danny McBride (of Pineapple Express fame) as the film's haphazard pyrotechnics expert, and Matthew McConaughey uses his persona to great effect as the action star's agent. They both take a back seat to Tom Cruise, however, who steals the show as a modern-day Harry Cohn, surreally disguised in a fat suit, bald cap, superfluous body hair and leather pants. Les Grossman is a tyrannical studio boss of old dropped into the 21st century, when egos have so many more ways of getting stroked and enlarging beyond measure. Cruise nails it with more piss and vinegar than he's put into anything in a long time.
As for the actors playing actors, Stiller's inability to make you believe you're watching someone other than Ben Stiller is halting; but the film never stalls because the other actors pick up the slack quickly, none more so than Robert Downey Jr. The guy is remarkable, and his brilliant performance should be rewarded come award season; but there's no chance in PC Hollywood of an actor getting nominated, much less winning, best supporting actor for playing an actor who undergoes a skin-darkening procedure so he can play the platoon's token African-American sergeant in black-face. Lighten up, people.