Shoes and socks remain on.

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2008)

I am a fan of all three of the main actors in this movie but I have to say I left the cinema disappointed. There are some great scenes in this movie and some laugh-out-loud visual gags. The fake trailers at the start an the opening scene are extremely funny. But after a while the main running jokes end up wearing thin. Take Downey Jr's character for example. Sure at first his playing of the stereotypical black sergeant is funny but half way through the movie I was already tired of his shtick. Plus I found a lot of his dialogue hard to understand. Another example is Tom Cruise's turn as Lex Grossman. Sure it's hilarious to see him as a fat, bald exec with a foul mouth and a short fuse, but when all that comes out of his mouth is expletives then it becomes old extremely quickly. Same with his dance routine, funny at first but then they had to bring it back for the closing credits and run it into the ground.
I always enjoy watching Ben Stiller and Jack Black. I find them genuinely funny, but here it's almost as if I was laughing in anticipation of a joke that never happened. I really wanted this movie to knock my socks off, but unfortunately all that happened was one of my shoelaces came undone.