Definitive Action Comedy

Rating: 9/10 (14 August 2008)

A trailer opens with a young-rapper as he flaunts his ''super smooth moves'' in front of the camera. The audience bursts into laughter, though not so much over the hip hopper's dance ensemble, as the canned drink that he's holding in his right hand. Neither Crunk Juice, nor Pimp Juice hold a candle to the label stretched across this can of aluminum:Booty Sweat...
And so begins Tropic Thunder, the quintessential slapstick film of the summer. Renown movie stars, Ben Stiller,(Meet the Parents, Starsky and Hutch), who also happens to be the film's writer, Jack Black (Shallow Hal, King Kong),and Robert Downey Junior(Charlie Bartlett, Iron Man), in his most outrageous role to date, come together to give birth to an amazing action comedy. The famous ''Play within a Play''concept, is realized brilliantly here as we join the misadventures of four A list movie stars, Tug Speedman (Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), Jeff Portnoy (Black), Alpha Chino, played by Brandon T. Jackson, and Kevin Sandusky, played by Jay Baruchel, who each sign a contract to take part in a gritty, explosive, Vietnam blockbuster film, itself based on a war documentary.
You're not misreading, real life actors, portraying real life actors, who are themselves portraying characters in a film. But if that doesn't seem like a zany enough plot, throw in the fact that these top-grossing actors, soon find themselves (unawares),in a real-life Vietnam terrorist situation, and you've got one wacky movie.
From the initial moment, we're treated with laughs, as the film launches with a fake commercial (the aforementioned Booty Sweat introduction), and follows up with a series of three fake movie trailers to boot, all of which host several additional big name actors, and who both portray, and parody themselves. From there, the main character's are introduced, each of their persona's captured via separate encounters with the media, and in as flamboyant and parodic a fashion, as any moment of Mad TV or Saturday Night Live might seek to flaunt. Afterwards, we're taken to the (in-movie) set of ''Tropic Thunder'', where Tug Speedman, Kirk Lazarus, Jeff Portnoy, Alpha Chino and Kevin Sandusky are within their perspective roles for the movie. And it is here that the audience, not only receives a first glimpse of the fantastic chemistry that the directors helped to forge between the actors, but also of the sheer hilarity that is found within Robert Downey Jr.'s character, Kirk Lazarus. The first moment Lazarus's attempted, ''African American'' accent is heard, along with stereotypical demeanor, heads will roll.
Ben Stiller's unique comedic style and timing, also helps move the film along in an ideal direction.This, along with the utter randomness of Jack Black's drug fueled character, who happens to fall into a state of random insanity, as he goes into a chronic withdrawal during he and the other actor's trek through the Vietnam wilderness, the result of matters suddenly going from film, to real-life crisis, only helps power this non-stop rocket ship of a motion picture. Kevin Sandusky, played by Jay Baruchel, is a typical struggling teen actor whose own acting abilities, shallow as they are in comparison to the other three, is the result of their inspiration. Fascinatingly, Jackson's character (who is African American), aspiring rapper Alpha Chino's streetwise, ''O.G.''personality, finds itself almost in direct conflict with Kirk Lazarus's, whose in-movie character often goes from perhaps aloofly identifiable with some African Americans,to entirely the opposite,becomes an interesting conflict within the film, and a comedy device that is no less than entertaining.
Also making the A-list credits for the film, is actor Matthew McConaughey (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, We are Marshall), who plays Rick Peck, friend and fellow actor to Stiller's character, Tug Speedman. And though Peck tends to be more of a minor character than some of the others in the film, his presence and acting here prove quite welcome.
Yet the stars don't quite end there. Nick Nolte (Mysteries of Pittsburgh, The Spiderwick Chronicles), joins the cast as washed out Vietnam veteran, Four Leaf Tayback, and is in fact the key character who leads Tug Speedman and his band astray, right into the hands of a terrorist camp. But what may perhaps stand as the biggest surprise in Tropic Thunder,may come from Tom Cruise's (War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible 3),part as domineering movie producer Lee Grossman, whose demeanor and mouth, might seem altogether unexpected for the recently berated actor, but that serves as the icing on the movie's cake.
Ultimately, it comes down to this. If ever there were a slapstick comedy film that got just about everything right, Tropic Thunder would be it. There's simply very little that it gets wrong. Sure, perhaps maybe the random stupidity of it all could have been toned down a bit, in exchange for some other element or another, but what would be the point? The film's atmosphere is almost perfectly established,with wittiness and pretty decent character development to boot. This is Ben Stiller at his finest, and silliest. And well,it's Robert Downey at what I believe to be his silliest, and most inventive. It's a genius, and quite clever film, that pokes immense fun at an element of our popular culture which we love and cherish a little more than it might deserve, Hollywood and the movie industry itself. And it goes down in my book as the second best movie of the summer, and perhaps one of the greatest comedy flicks in recent years. So do yourself a grand favor, and see it before the summer ends.
-S.S.