Shakespearian, Epic

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2011)

Wow, that Ben Stiller is one more smart f*kn guy. "Tropic Thunder" is a riot when viewed either as an action movie, comedy, mocumentary, or metaphorical hard core spiritual initiation tale. As an Action/Comedy, "Tropic Thunder" is brilliant. Bold strokes paint a fictional world within the fictional world of movies, then has this tag team Fantasy lock braces with Reality (which is only the fictional reality of a movie. . .) The story moves fast: Tugg has the map, mothafkas!; "I'm the dude playin the dude who's disguised as another dude." Robert Downey Jr. is at his greatest, playing multiple Oscar winner and Australian, Russell Crowe er Kirk Lazarus. So Downey is actually ". . .the dude who's playing the dude, who's playing the dude who's disguised as another dude." That, Ladies and Gentlement, takes talent. This is some seriously amazing satire. Moliere would laugh his a$$ off. Gandhi might too, until he cries over the agonies we choose for ourselves on our journey of becoming awakened. Look at the little heroin kingpin's T-shirt when he rips open his over shirt: the image is of a female dancing monster, swinging a dead baby in one arm and somebody's head in the other. Meet Kali, Goddess of Destruction (of illusion.) Having done some serious Shakespeare study, I do not say this lightly: As Shakespeare's brilliance allowed him to write on several different levels at once (from banal to exalted), so does Ben Stiller.