I Admit I was Surprised..

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2008)

at how funny this film is. I would never have gone to see it had my (grown up) children not suggested it when we thought about a family movie outing a couple of weeks back. I was aware of the controversy and felt a bit dubious about how offensive it might be, and, let's be honest here, I'm not a huge Ben Stiller fan. So my reaction was a resigned "Must we.?" But I freely admit I was wrong. This is a satire, it's genuinely funny and as a satire, probably works better than Burn After Reading, which I saw last weekend. It's the best spoof I've seen in a while.
A bunch of diva actors are cast in a Vietnam war epic based on the story of an heroic vet, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte hamming it up wonderfully). There's Jack Black as Jeff, with his cocaine habit, Robert Downey Jr as 'serious' Australian actor Kirk Lazarus, so into The Method that he darkens his skin for the part and once spent 6 months working in a Beijing textile factory as preparation for a role. Brandon T Jackson is Alpa Chino, Hip Hop star, Steve Coogan is a posey British director, Tom Cruise is an obnoxious producer and of course Stiller himself stars as Tugg Speedman, star of a never ending series of dire action movies. All want in their various ways to be taken seriously, in what's hoped will be the Vietnam war movie to end all Vietnam war movies. As their demands become increasingly hard to deal with, the director sends them off into the real jungle, away from their Blackberries, Tivo and luxury hotel to film out in the backwoods, hoping to get some gutsy performances. The plot has them getting caught up with local drug warlords and dodging real bullets and mines. And it's funny.
Contrast the death by landmine of Coogan's director (funny despite - or maybe because of - the flying head) with the death by shooting in Burn After Reading of Pitt's gym bunny at the hands of George Clooney. I'm not quite sure why, but the former works, the latter really doesn't. Downey and Stiller are fabulous in this, pitching the humour at exactly the right level, and whilst I appreciate the arguments of the disability groups who have objected to this movie, I think in this instance, they are wrong.
The conversation in question, about Stiller's previous role as Simple Jack, discusses how disability is usually portrayed in film in Hollywood. Namely, that audiences seem happy to watch disabled people as long as they have some exceptional gifts in compensation because it makes everyone feel better, the "Feel Good" factor. However, when a disability is portrayed accurately, then audiences aren't interested because it makes them too uncomfortable. And who wants to be confronted by anything remotely uncomfortable in a movie? Is this not actually a very relevant point being made? I know there will always be some members of the audience who don't get the subtlety of the satire, but surely they are in the minority? Or am I over estimating the audience here?
I thought the spoof trailers at the beginning were just classic! I challenge anyone not to smile at 'Kirk' and Tobey McGuire as two gay monks. Almost worth going just for the first five minutes alone. Anyway, Tropic Thunder entertained this family for a couple of hours. Good value, a good piece of Friday Night Fluff.