Quite simply a riot

Rating: 10/10 (16 August 2008)

I'm just gonna come right out and say it, "I loved this movie!" I laughed consistently through the whole thing and at the moment it's one of the funniest movies I've seen in quite some time.
Who better to write and direct a movie about Hollywood and its eccentricities than Ben Stiller, a guy who grew up in the fold with actor parents? If you've seen the trailers you know the story. A handful of troublesome actors are dumped in the middle of Vietnam by their director in an effort to scare worthy performances out of them with guerrilla style film making tactics. What you don't see is the fact that in spite of the film being set mostly around the main actors in the jungle, the entire film industry is skewered right down to the last key grip. Agents and producers fight over whether to favor money or common human decency. Actors argue over method. An effects guy is just plain insane. And the war vet who wrote the source material for their production is just as crazy as the drug dealers our heroes run a foul of. Every actor, including the many cameos spread among the celluloid are at the top of their game. People who like to laugh should be easily entertained here and anyone who has ever watched a behind the scenes documentary may very well bust a gut before it's half over.
As for the controversy behind this. Don't peg it before you've seen it. The use of the word retard should not in anyway be construed as offensive in this film. They are making fun of people(especially Hollywood's) perception of the mentally challenged. That's the whole point of the movie. The same point made with Robert Downey Jr. in black face. The movie is poking fun of its own industry...and industry with a dubious reputation for the amoral and misinformed. That's why this is classic.