"You Have Hands?"

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2008)

In the battle of summer comedy blockbusters, TROPIC THUNDER wins by a resounding KO over the more flat-out hilarious, but deeply flawed, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS ( unfortunately, I didn't have the time to see STEPBROTHER too, but I think I know how that one is going to be... ) PINEAPPLE EXPRESS was spot-on for the first 3/5, but the last 2/5 of it totally lost its focus and just became this horrible drag of an action movie that left me extremely disconnected.
TROPIC THUNDER, on the other hand, didn't have one iota of lag to it, and worked more as a brilliant satire than "just" a mere comedy. It took a while to get going, and I must admit at first I thought it was just going to be another goofy Ben Stiller movie, but once the actors get lost in the jungle and Robert Downey Jr. starts to shine in his wacked-out "method-actor-gone- too-far" role, the movie starts to become something else all-together.....
I loved how it morphed into a skewered homage of Vietnam movies ( DEER HUNTER, obviously APOCALYPSE NOW ), and when Stiller's character was forced to do his "Simple Jack" routine for the Vietcong, it took you to the same exact place of celluloid madness as THE DEER HUNTER'S memorable Russian Roulette scene, albeit it in inspired comedic fashion....
Then, when it morphs further into a send-up of cannibalistic Hollywood, and Tom Cruise's "Les Grossman" character gets his turn to shine, TROPIC THUNDER becomes a movie of tremendous substance that you will long remember long after the "buzz" of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS has worn off...