Ben Stiller brings the Thunder

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2008)

What do you get when you put "Platoon", "Robert Altman's The Player", and "Three Amigos" in a blender? You get a very tasty concoction called "Tropic Thunder". By now, the premise of the movie is fairly well known...a group of actors (including soon-to-be has-been Tugg Speedman, overly-dedicated method-man Kirk Lazurus, and an obnoxious junkie/comic played by Jack Black) get trapped in a guerilla infested area of Laos, but think it's just another day on the set of their big-budget Vietnam flick, "Tropic Thunder". "Three Amigos", anyone? Part action flick, part social commentary, and part skewer of the movie industry,this film was a total blast, cementing beyond anyone's doubt Ben Stiller's comic genius (he directed) and Robert Downey Jr.'s reputation as,if not "the most talented actor of his generation", then at least "the most talented actor EVER..." Great dialouge, interesting characters , and action scenes better than most ACTION movies make "Tropic Thunder" an ass kicker...would've liked to see more Tom Cruise (as Les Grossman, a comically frightening producer/studio head) though....It's good to know that Hollywood heavies like Stiller, Downey Jr., and Tom Cruise can laugh at themselves. Because if you can't laugh at yourself, what the hell else can you laugh at?