Great Spoof

Rating: Null/10 (2 December 2008)

Tropic Thunder (2008)
**** (out of 4)
Hilarious spoof of Hollywood and war movies has a group of actors making a Vietnam film when one of them are kidnapped by real terrorists and the rest must try and save him. This here is without question one of the best comedies in recent decades as the screenplay hits all the right marks and the spoof of Hollywood is just downright hilarious and more truthful than any actor would probably have you believe. I guess you could also call this movie brave on the part of many of the actors and that includes Downey who is playing a black man and probably gets the most laughs of anyone. The constant jokes of him acting and trying to speak like a black man are priceless as are the countless jokes at Stiller's character who played a retard in an earlier movie that critics hated. The comedy goes even further to make fun of just about everything in Hollywood from actors taking drugs to getting caught in the tabloids. I really loved how Stiller kicked off the movie with three fake trailers making fun of the type of movies being made in Hollywood today. The movie Grindhouse used this joke to great success but I'd say it's done even better here. What really sells this movie are the great performances from the entire cast with Downey stealing the film as the Australian actor who had his skin dyed so that he could try to win an Oscar playing a black character. The politically incorrect nature of this is always done in good taste so no one should worry about being offended. I'm not a fan of Jack Black but he too shines here as the heroin attic fat man who made a career out of farting. Then there's Stiller who really gets to have fun as the washed up action hero who tried to do something more dramatic with the role of a retard. Finally you also have to mention the supporting performances by Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise. All three give their best performances in many, many years but it's Cruise who really stands out as the evil, rap music dancing producer. His performance here is so incredibly crazy and out there you can't help but wish he'd get an Oscar for it. There are countless other cameos by famous people, which get some nice laughs as well. There have been countless spoofs of Hollywood but this one here certainly ranks as one of the greatest just because of the balls it shows in doing anything for a laugh.