Please Mr Stiller, stick to making stuff you wrote yourself!

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2011)

When Ben Stiller writes and makes his own stuff it works out well, Zoolander being a prime example. When he works as an actor for hire the results are far more patchy.
Thankfully a couple years ago Stiller had a brainwave that he managed to turn into Tropic Thunder, and while it isn't quite at the level of Zoolander it holds up very well.
Stiller's directing style is quite odd, his films tend to be almost overstuffed with peripheral characters and short scenes that don't seem to move the plot forward that much, thankfully to date this has not clogged his films up too much, but it might be more noticeable in less funny films.
In Zoolander Stiller poked fun at celebrity, the public's obsession with appearances, how clueless the people in front of the camera were, and how easy they were to manipulate. Tropic Thunder might seem like a very different film but in essence it is basically poking fun at actors, how clueless and self absorbed they actually are, and how easily they are manipulated by power brokers behind the scenes.
A massive nameless Hollywood production company is making another Vietnam War movie in the same vein as Platoon and Hamburger Hill, the opening scenes show a pretty close approximation to what anyone who has seen a couple of those movies is used to. Lotsa bullets, explosions and rough and tough soldiers opening up on the "damn VC". The film plans to tell the "true story" of a small group of soldiers fighting against seemingly insurmountable odds, and was penned by one of the survivors named Four-Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), who lost his hands in the war, which must have made typing his memoirs an absolute bitch.
The film is extremely big-budget, but it is also running behind time and over-budget even in the early stages. The rookie director Damian Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is having trouble juggling egos and unwanted ideas from his cast of coddled prima-donnas and the bumbling of many of his staff, on top of this he has the studio bosses breathing down his neck in the form of Les Grossman (Tom Cruise), a loud and obnoxious power mad little man who demands results.
After a conversation with Four-Leaf Cockburn decides to shake things up and shoot the film guerrilla style, away from the luxuries and pampering that the film set offersto the night. So with a skeleton crew of basically 5 actors, Cockburn, Four-Leaf and an effects guy they take a helicopter into the deepest jungle.
Now once in the jungle things don't go according to plan, after Cockburn gives the actors their brief and explains how hard things will be he promptly steps on a discarded land mine and explodes. The actors initially don't know if it is real or a trick so they argue for a few minutes before deciding to press on. Unfortunately the explosion did not go unnoticed and the other locals in the area happen to be a vicious drug cartel hell bent on defending their turf.
When the drug gang attacks initially the actors go along with thinking it is simply another scene for the film, except one by one they realise that not all is well, except Lazarus who is 100% method 100% of the time.
Meanwhile back in the US of A the production company have decisions of their own to make, whether to leave Speedman for dead and claim insurance for the entire botched film or to try to find him. In between is Speedman's semi-loyal agent Rick Peck (Mathew McConaughey), who is initially steadfast but open to bribery.
The finale is well made and superior to many actual action films, there are perhaps too many jokes, or at least some of them fall flat, and the truth comes out regarding many of the combatants which in some cases is more unexpected than others.
The film isn't overlong at a tick under two hours but could definitely use some trimming, the US production company scenes seem extraneous but I guess if you can get Tom Cruise to sacrifice his good looks you make the most of it! (Damn right I'm being sarcastic.) All in all a very funny film with some excellent characters that are enhanced by the quality of the actors behind them, Robert Downey Jr earned justified praise for his Lazarus character, I just can't help wondering how he would go with the drug-crazed Portnoy role, but that might be the bitch in me.
Tropic Thunder is by no stretch the best film ever but if you're looking for a comedy with some solid action scenes you could do a hell of a lot worse.
P.S. I dunno if the beginning or end of the review suits more but just like the Grindhouse films there are some hilarious fake trailers and ads at the start of the film, and just like Grindhouse they are some of the best bits in the film.
Final Rating - 8 / 10. Stiller should stop being a monkey-boy actor for hire and stick to making his own films. They turn out so much better.