Tropic Blunder

Rating: 1/10 (17 May 2009)

This movie is a disaster. Renaming it to "Tropic Blunder" may hurt the ego of its producers but would be truer to what the audiences should expect. The film is gory and disrespectful of war veterans and people who have risked their lives in the Vietnam war or in any war. Gore and blood are enmeshed together with cynicism and insensitivity which we are to take as some deep form of artistic reflection on the evils of war and violence. Ben Stiller proves yet again that while he can be a good comedian when someone else directs him he does not live up to the job of directing. The film is filled with cursing, profanity, and sheer stupidity to the point of becoming unbearable. However, we must admit that there are several funny and witty lines in the disastrous dialog. One of those rare moments is when, Robert Downy Jr.'s character, who is a white man pretending to be black, gets into an exchange with the other African American in the group about the phrase "you people." Downey Jr.'s acting is still impressive, even in the midst of poor plot and writing. Besides these "pearls", which are few and far between, the flick is simply bad, bad, bad. And it is not funny. I would not let even my dog watch it.