The Grand Finale to the Age of Parodies

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2009)

Tropic Thunder may not be a great movie by general standards but when it comes to the genre of comedy it is pretty far up there. Especially considering that comedies are just not as popular or respected as they used to be. Particularly that of parodies but Tropic Thunder maybe the last successful parody for a long time.
The performances all around were just laugh-out-loud hilarious. Ben Stiller of course led the cast. Although I tend to dislike Stiller his performance was not over-acted as he seems to do in many of his movies. Robert Downey Jr. who probably gave the funniest performance or somewhere in the realm of that from the cast of characters. His role as Kirk Lazarus, the 5 time Oscar winner, who then for his next role would play a man of a different ethnicity was humorous enough in itself but his performance took it to another level. His lines were witty, smart and maybe not so smart which combined to make one of the funniest yet gratifying performances I have ever seen. Then of course there was Jack Black who many people felt got the low end of the bargain in terms of screen time in material and that maybe so but he had quite a few moments that made me laugh about as much as any of the other actors did. Then of course there was the many of cameos by widely respected and famous actors. The most impressive one from Matthew McCounagey, Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise was in fact Tom Cruise. He played Les Grossman, a loud mouth conceited producer of the movie that Stiller and company set out to make. His comic timing was simply perfect and was my favorite of all involved. With this performance he might of paved another way to keep his career a success. He is quite a talented actor but still his performance in comedy caught me and probably many other people off-guard. At first the idea of him getting an Oscar nomination seemed crazy but as I think about it there weren't many supporting performances better than his this year.
The writing and directing was also done very nicely. Some of the material that was given to the actors to work with was phenomenal especially that of Robert Downey Jr. Of course though the many mockingly made jokes at the Hollywood and the film industry was done in a very nice subtle way, like a true parody should. Also some of the action surprisingly from the movie was done surprisingly well. What was really good though was the casting. Like many other parodies, the art of using the cameo to generate laughter was used very well. The cameos of the many famous actors involved all contributed to the movie, they were not rushed into the movie but used for a purpose.
In light of many recent parodies such as Date Movie, Scary Movie etc., it is very obvious that this branch of comedy seems to be dying off in movies. It is very possible that after Tropic Thunder there really won't be another good parody let alone a respectable one. Even without all of that Tropic Thunder is one of the most hilarious movies I have seen in a while and I would say is a must see.