Downey Jr. and Cruise are the thunder and the lightning of "Tropic Thunder"

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2008)

Comedy, Tragedy, Parody- "Tropic Thunder" does encompass the aforementioned three elements to certain degrees.
Comedy- Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson portray Hollywood thespians who are acting in a "Platoon"-type war film entitled, what do you know, "Tropic Thunder". Stiller is Tugg Speedman, the Hollywood action hero whose latest action film franchise has recently run out of speed. Jack Black plays Jeff Portnoy, the comedic chunky actor who starred in a flatulence-induced comedic franchise called "The Fatties" and is trying to prove he has the acting diversity to also do le drama. Robert Downey Jr. is Kirk Lazarus, the acclaimed Academy Award winner whose method acting runs in his blood so much that for his lunatic role in Thunder he goes to the dark side by going through a procedure that pigments his skin color and wants it to quote the Stones "Paint it Black". Jay Baruchel plays the youthful rookie actor Kevin Sandusky who has been an avid fan of the aforementioned, but is more level headed than his mentors. And Brandon T. Jackson plays Alpha Chino the rapper turned actor who made his claim to fame by promoting an energy drink called "Booty Sweat". When the film's director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) has numerous troubling challenges in working with these prima-donnas, the Hollywood studio bosses take notice and desolate the thespian Thunderous group into the isolated jungle fighting a real war against some Asian drug-ring soldiers. What does not strike thunder to these egomaniacs is that they are no longer shooting a film but in fact are really shooting at them! There are certain mundane misfires to that aspect, as it does get monotonous after a few scenes. But fiery comedic turns by Robert Downey Jr. as Lazarus and an unrecognizable Tom Cruise as an authoritative Hollywood studio boss Les Grossman does salvage "Tropic Thunder" to thunderous laughing explosions that are strictly the bomb!
Tragedy- Nick Nolte portraying a former war veteran named Four Leaf Tayback who is also the film's technical adviser was not the four leaf clover "Tropic Thunder" needed. It was quite a tragedy to observe Nolte playing the same old anger-induced egomaniac character which he has overkilled in many previous Nolte roles. I also did not observe any relevance to the plot in Danny McBride's performance as Cody, the technical effects guru whose clumsy acts were just a failed effectual effort for laughs that were not special in any comedic technicality. Ben Stiller also directed and co-wrote "Tropic Thunder" and somewhere along the way it was a tragedy to watch Stiller get lost in the jungle with the script and direction of the film by sidetracking it with irrelevant scenes that should have been fired out.
Parody- Even though I pulled in a few hard knocks for Stiller, I do commend him for his efforts in deriving the premise of "Tropic Thunder". The self-obsessed nature of the film industry were presented to the viewers as messaging that it is part of the fabric nature of making films, and at the end it should not be taken too seriously as long as the cinematic end-product is of above satisfactory material. "Tropic Thunder" never reaches the jungles of above satisfactory material but it does land us with some classical parody delights in the work of Downey Jr. and Cruise. *** Average