Rating: * * *
Verdict: This risky venture pokes fun at Hollywood, and starts strongly before fading
Ben Stiller lets loose with his opinions on Hollywood and the movie industry in Tropic Thunder, his latest comedy project which he co-wrote (with Justin Theroux, nephew of Paul), co-produced, directed and, just to top it off, starred in.
Tropic Thunder is a film within a film. It's about egocentric actor
Tugg Speedman's (Stiller) bid to win an Oscar and gain respect from his peers, despite really having only done an action film with five repetitive sequels and a film about a "retarded" boy called Simple Jack. This last cinematic outing is regarded by some as quite possibly the worse film ever made.
So, with his career on the wane, Speedman is desperate for his latest role, as a heroic solider fighting in Vietnam in the late 60s, to land him that elusive Oscar nomination. Unfortunately the production is in trouble thanks to the narcissism and insecurity of the film's actors, pressure from the bullying studio head, a nervous young British director and a trigger-happy pyrotechnics expert, and it is fast becoming known as the "the most expensive war movie never made".
To try to save the production John "Four Leaf" Tayback (Nick Nolte), the Vietnam vet on whose memoir the film is based, suggests the director take the core cast into the jungle, getting them away from their creature comforts and shooting the film "guerrilla style". The only problem is the cast is dropped in the Golden Triangle, home to the very protective and fiery heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang and real life takes over as the cast fight to get out of the jungle alive.
The film starts off with a bang, featuring a series of very funny film trailers from the actor's latest work, but it's not long before both the pace and laughs slow down.
Acknowledging there is some risk in creating a work that is crude, irreverent and a parody of his own industry, Stiller has packed Tropic Thunder with stars able to handle the material.
Robert Downey Jr steals the show, playing an Australian actor who undergoes a controversial medical treatment to play African-American Sgt Osiris. Matthew McConaughey is aptly cast as Speedman's agent "The Pecker" while Tom Cruise makes an unexpected appearance as a balding, hairy, hip-hop dancing studio head determined to make everyone's life a misery. Cruise's recent run-in with Paramount chief executive Sumner Redstone can only have influenced his over-the-top, startling performance.
Tropic Thunder is a relatively smart and refreshingly politically incorrect satire, and there is a lot to like as it takes the mickey out of Hollywood's twisted priorities, fart jokes, action films, dummed-down scripts and unrealistic plot lines, overly pampered actors and money-hungry studios. Of course, it falls victim to most of this itself, but at least you'll get a laugh out of it.
Cast:
Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Nick Nolte, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise