Tropic Thunder: Failed Satire, Wasted Talent

Rating: 2/10 (16 August 2008)

Ask yourself this when you see "Tropic Thunder": Is the audience understanding this as a satire or are they taking retard jokes at face value? Why is this movie getting fantastic reviews? Critics are really giving this movie too much credit when the assume that brilliant satire underlies a mind-numbing reminder that Hollywood can still blow things up. I wonder if critics dared to go see this movie with the general population - then they would realize that laughing at Stiller's portrayal of mentally-retarded characters in the movie is not the same as laughing at the idea that Hollywood exploits these characters for entertainment.
The beginning held great promise, but even the acting of Robert Downey Jr. couldn't save this terrible excuse for a script. Stiller has worked on this for 10 years? Are you F'ing kidding me? I thought two guys sat down with a quarter of weed and just sat around for 5 hours saying "... and then what if THIS happened?" SPOILER ALERT: Matthew McCaughahey throws a TIVO box at a missile to save a helicopter from being blown up, with no mention of why he is in the Vietnamese jungle in the first place (uninspired spoof). Wake up critics - this is failed attempt, and would have been condemned to the caliber of "Superhero" movie if it didn't have such quality actors.
Satire is not stupid; it requires more than this simple rehash of Hollywood norms. This film only serves to continue our acceptance of moronic scripts with sparse comic relief.