"Thunder" Is Wonderful!

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2008)

"Reality Bites" director Ben Stiller has not only made a rambunctious R-rated parody of Vietnam war movies with his audacious, big dumb action comedy "Tropic Thunder," but he also has ridicules Hollywood's obsession with such fare. Take all the "Rambo" sagas with Sylvester Stallone and then toss in George Hickenlooper's superlative documentary "Heart of Darkness" (1991) about the complications that Francis Ford Coppola faced on his magnum opus "Apocalypse Now," and you'll have a good idea of what to expect from "Tropic Thunder." Although Stiller and his top-notch cast play everything for belly laughs, "Tropic Thunder" contains moments when it could pass for a genuine, straight-laced adventure outing. "Iron Man" sensation Robert Downey, Jr., overshadows everybody as five-time Oscar winning Australian actor Kurt Lazarus who has dyed his skin black to play an jive-talking, George Jefferson-type, African-American U.S. Army Sergeant. Superstar Tom Cruise makes quite an impression as a sleazy, gutter-mouthed Tinseltown producer whose favorite word starts with the sixth letter of the alphabet. Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tobey Maguire, Mickey Rooney, and young Asian actor Brandon Soo Hoo in a bravura performance as the vilest little villain ever flesh out the cast of this imaginative, memorable, and sometimes controversial insanity.
Stiller opens "Tropic Thunder" with hilarious trailers for fake movies that headline his stars. Stiller plays action hero Tugg Speedman in a series of "Scorcher" movies that ridicule franchises like Bruce Willis' "Die Hard," except that Tugg has run his course as a hero. Robert Downey, Jr., appears alongside "Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire as a pair of promiscuous priests at a remote monastery. Jack Black mimics Eddie Murphy's "The Nutty Professor" movies with his own bowel-humored comedies about an obese family called "The Fatties." Black plays each family member in a fat suit and delights in breaking wind at the least provocation. If these faux trailers don't offend you and you find yourself laughing until your sides split, what follows is even funnier.
Essentially, "Tropic Thunder" unfolds as a movie-within-a-movie about Hollywood movie makers. Freshman director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan of "Night at the Museum") plays a witless helmer who gets dressed down by action movie mogul Len Grossman (Tom Cruise of "Top Gun") for not having his cameras rolling on a million dollar fireball explosion like the one that ignited "Apocalypse Now." Damien wants desperately to redeem himself in Grossman's eyes, and burned-out Vietnam veteran Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte of "48 Hrs") concocts a scheme that will help Damien win back Grossman's support. Ostensibly, Four-Leaf's memoirs inspired Damien's Vietnam extravaganza, and Four Leaf suggests that Damien take his cast into the jungle, rig up surveillance cameras to film them and then turn the guys loose. Not only will Damien be able to shoot the movie guerrilla-style for the least amount of money possible, but he also will get realistic performances from his pampered, soft-living cast.
Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller of "Meet the Fockers") likes the idea because he hopes that Damien's Vietnam epic will boost his career out of the doldrums. Earlier, Speedman had starred in a "Forrest Gump" style movie called "Simple Jack" where he impersonated a mentally challenged, buck-toothed hayseed who claimed that he could converse with the livestock. "Simple Jack" crashed and burned at the box office, and Damien's movie represents a reprieve for Speedman's career. No sooner have these nitwits hit the jungle than everything goes haywire. What our heroes have no clue about is that the part of Southeast Asia where they have chosen to film is the bailiwick of ruthless Asian drug producers. A cigar-chomping, 12-old year tyrant, Tran (first-time actor Brandon Soo Hoo), and his heavily armed henchmen operate a secret factory where they manufacture massive quantities of heroin. When Tran's goons spot Tugg and his fellow thespians on cinematic maneuvers, they mistake the stars for the D.E.A. They capture Four Leaf and later Tugg and imprison them, while Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr. of "Iron Man"), heroin-addicted Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black of "King Kong") and hip-hop wannabe Alpha Chino (Brandon T. Jackson of "Roll Bounce") decide to imitate Rambo and spring their comrades.
"Tropic Thunder" qualifies as a goofy, gung-ho action comedy until our heroes encounter the villains and their heroin factory. Indeed, Tran and his trigger-happy thugs take themselves seriously. They prefer to shoot first and ask questions afterward. Nevertheless, it seems that these Asians loved Tugg Speedman's portrayal of retarded farmhand Simple Jack, and they coerce him at gun point to perform a one-man version of the movie while our dim-witted heroes plan an attack. Stiller and scenarists Justin "Strangers with Candy" Theroux and Etan "King of the Hill" Cohen spare nobody and nothing in their outlandish depiction of Hollywood gone wild. Robert Downey, Jr., and Tom Cruise steal "Tropic Thunder" with their whacked-out characters, and Cruise skewers his "Risky Business" origins with a goofy dance as the end credits roll. Be prepared either for the worst or the best of everythingdepending on either your tastefulness or tastelessness with "Tropic Thunder."