Brilliant!

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2009)

I hardly even bothered to consider this flick at the first place because I literally thought this will be yet another over-hyped comedy, knowing that almost all of the big-budget comedies (Zohan, Dollitle to name a few) of the past year have been in truth middling films. But 'Tropic Thunder' may have just earned my earnest respect as being the best comedy I have seen in a really long, long time.
Whats good about Tropic Thunder is that the plot is not dumb or laughable. Its the actors and events within the plot that makes you laugh. The thought about having five real-life actors caught in a real-life war situation sounds serious, and Ben Stiller treats this both seriously and also with comedic panache. Not to mention the sight of Steve Coogan saying 'oh oh' and being blown to pieces after stepping on an old-mine freaked me out even more than horror movies in recent times, but how Ben Stiller tries to lick the blood mistaking it for a prop hilarious.
The fake trailers was a masterstroke, especially Kirk Lazarus' 'Satan' Alley' fake trailer and the music which appears when Tobey Maguire touches Robert Downey Jr. That said and done, it is Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise who really steal the show in this film. I have become a big fan of Robert Downey in recent years (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang being the main reason), now he will go down as one of my utmost favorites with his performance here. His performance as Osiris and absolutely weird comments such as 'I don't read the script, the script reads me' gives you a 'wtf' reaction to boot with. Don't to forget his Chinese interaction with the terrorists where he mixes a 'paddy field' and a 'poppy field'. Cruise, surprisingly, has earned my utmost credit as an actor through this film. I never doubted Cruise's ability to act, but the downside is that Cruise has not taken up enough films to show off his flexibility as an actor. Weirdly enough, a superstar like him taking up a role like Les Grossman's in a film like 'Tropic Thunder' is good news for Cruise critics. Cruise was absolutely convincing in his role, and his satirical dancing and incessant bad words spurting out of his mouth in novelty (Cruise has probably cursed more in this film more than his entire career put together). That toned-down 'Go F*** yourself' is notorious.
Jack Black and Ben Stiller follow up with good performances, but not actually excellent. Stiller instills brilliant laughter at times (the panda scene), but is pedestrian in most. Jack Black meanwhile is an actor whom I personally thought would be better off doing serious roles (he was convincing in King Kong) rather than comedic roles, where he comes across a tad too self-conscious, forced humor. But in this film, Jack's style of humor comes across as a perfect suit, him being the absolute nuisance who distracts the whole unit. The 'I'll suck your dick' comment after learning of Alpa Chino's sexual identity is brilliant timing. Jay Baruchel is good and fits his role to the T but Mathhew McConaughey seems a little out of place with his role.
Ben Stiller's brilliant direction and some great artwork and action direction makes Tropic Thunder the most epic comedy I have seen in my life.