Despite appearances, down deep, this film is extremely formulaic

Rating: 4/10 (8 December 2008)

A group of idiotic spoiled actors are on location in Southeast Asia in order to make a war film. However, the project is running amok and the director has no control over the actors. Finally, in desperation, he takes just the actors, writer and special effects man into the jungle and dumps them--forcing them to act without the entourages, cell phones and the like. However, shortly after he does this, the group wanders into a real war zone and it takes some time for the hapless actors to realize the shooting is real as well as to get out alive.
I found much of the first 30 minutes or so of TROPIC THUNDER to be highly offensive but also clever, as the audience gets inside into the behind the scenes aspects of making a film. The language was unbearably crude as the film makers seemed to think that screaming long strings of obscenities was funny, but at least the idea of showing a problem movie being made was reasonably clever. However, after this decent (but crude) setup, the film floundered as it seemed to be pure formula. In other words, despite being set in the jungles of Southeast Asia, the audience knew exactly what would happen because this type of film has been made again and again. They knew that the group of idiot actors would somehow get it together and become a cohesive group--like REMEMBER THE TITANS and so many other films. And, they also knew that despite 100,000 live bullets supposedly being shot at our group, no one would die or even suffer a significant injury!! And, by the end of the film, all the actors will have resolved their life issues in the process--the gay guy coming to grips with being gay, the chameleon-like actor realizing he has no idea who he really is any more and the lousy actor finally getting it together and earning that Oscar. Puh-leeze!!
So, really, apart from a few jokes here and there and some interesting interplay between Robert Downey and Ben Stiller as two nutty method actors, this movie offered nothing that wasn't predictable--just film cliché after film cliché. Frankly, when all was said and done, I felt a bit gypped--I wanted a film that took risks and tried to be something more than just another buddy film. Apart from a couple prosthetic arms on Nick Nolte and black-face makeup on Robert Downey, I just felt the film was the same old Hollywood film formula recycled yet again--with a bit of RAMBO II thrown in to boot. Plus, to cap it off, some of the performances (like the one-note film exec ridiculously overplayed by Tom Cruise) were just awful.
How could this film have made so much money?! It's got a few good moments but also abounds with clichés.