Mediocre at best

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2008)

This film is carried greatly by the performance of Robert Downey Jr., who has done an amazing job in recent films such as this and Ironman. However, Downey is a man alone in this film. None of the other actors help him out. Jack Black has done a great job recently in more serious roles but in this film turns right back into the nacho libre of old. Ben Stiller disappoints as he miscast himself in his own film. He was absolutely wrong for the role and failed to create humor. There were some decent appearances such as MM as the agent and Tom Cruise as les but there were minor roles and could do nothing to overcome the failures of the rest of the actors. Nick Nolte even disappoints in limited work. However, the movie does deserve somewhere about a 7, maybe a 6.6 because Robert Downey Jr. does the job of providing laughs for all. The racist jokes are, well, racist, but both the African Americans and the Caucasians seemed to find them funny and not offensive. He is the sole reason this movie is worth watching- just not for $9.50 at the theatre.