Hollywood extras fire real bullets!

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2008)

Java Man Reviews "Tropic Thunder" (Rated R) Directed by Ben Stiller. Written by Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen & Ben Stiller. Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Brandon T. Jackson, Bill Hader, Matthew McConaughey, Brandon Soo Hoo and a surprise actor. Originally appeared in LakewoodBuzz.com September, 2008.
OVERVIEW:
A troupe of actors (Stiller, Black, Downey, Jr., Baruchel & Jackson) are led into the jungle by pretentious director Damien Cockburn (Coogan) to make a Vietnam war movie. Along for the shoot are cynical screenwriter Four Leaf Tayback (Nolte), explosives expert Cody (McBride) and a full crew of Hollywood tech types. When a mishap sidelines Cockburn, Stiller's character takes over and stages the scenes as if the cameras were still rolling (he thinks there are hidden cameras filming their every move). As they blunder further into the jungle, the extras playing the enemy are actually a gang of drug runners who are returning fire with real bullets, led by the scariest 12-year old drug lord you will ever see (Hoo). As the rumble in the jungle heats up, Hollywood heavyweights back home are trying to figure out what's happening. An agent (McConaughey), a studio executive (see if you can guess), and his obsequious assistant (Hader) fret over the possibility that the cast and crew may die . . . or, worse yet, the studio may lose money.
REVIEW: 3 1/2 out of 4 Java Mugs
The film opens with three fake movie trailers and a concession ad featuring several of the lead actors. These little comic gems help establish the characters while also revealing the filmmakers intentions... to satirize Hollywood movies, Hollywood culture, and yes, Hollywood's audiences (us). The fact that many in attendance at our preview screening actually thought these were trailers for real movies only proves the point that many movies are ridiculous, yet we pay to see them anyway. Some even said they wish the movies they advertised were real. Jack Black in an Eddie Murphy-like fat suit? Why not? The movie satirizes all things Hollywood, from self-important actors and outrageous executives to nearly every war movie ever made.
Six of this film's actors are big-name stars who have had leading roles in their own successful movies, yet they work as an effective ensemble under Stiller's inspired direction. You may not recognize one of them, and you will swear another is not who the credits say he is. But that's all part of the fun!
Perhaps the best of the group is Downey Jr. as a Russell Crowe-like Australian actor who takes "The Method" so seriously that he actually becomes his character--a streetwise African American (complete with surgically altered skin color). Of course the troupe also includes a real black actor-rapper named Alpa Chino (Jackson) who becomes hilariously aggravated by the Downey character's outrageous blackness.
There are plenty of gory scenes, but even they are part of the satire, and are exposed for what they are--blood & guts special effects. Hawaii is used successfully as a stand-in for the unnamed location that itself is masquerading as Vietnam.
Getting back to fake movie trailers, this film, along with Quentin Tarantino's and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse (2007) has helped spawn The International Fake Trailer Festival, part of the International Film Festival of Catalonia in Spain. You can upload your fake trailer to teaserland.com.