A real blast...

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2009)

It's a fine line, indeed, the one between comedy and drama. Or between unintentional comedies that would be dramas. First and foremost, there's Robert Downey in blackface and Ben Stiller in whiteface; and then there's Danny McBride (he of THE FOOT FIST WAY, another comedy I would recommend), whose pyrotechnic expertise proves pivotal (though he labors under the misconception here that he has "blinded Jamie Lee Curtis" somewhere along the way)- and the kid, Brandon Soo Hoo, who is spot-on as the terrible Golden Triangle tyke. First rate in every respect (Stiller proves himself a director to be reckoned with), TROPIC THUNDER gets under the skin of the Hollywood Blockbuster like nothing I've ever seen- and does it with just enough of a mix of drama and humor to make it effective. (Would a drama have been half as good? We've seen funny war movies before- TOP SECRET!, the Chuck Norris and Sly Stallone films, to rattle off but a few-, but when was the last time that a comedy took us so deeply into the Heart of a FILMMAKER'S Darkness...?) McBride's rescue of his fellow filmmakers could be viewed as a metaphor for the way fx guys have been "saving" movies in Hollywoodland for years, now. Even funnier than the movie itself is the DVD commentary with Lincoln Osiris. Checker out.