The funniest movie of the post-DARK KNIGHT season.

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2008)

My Take: A hilarious and satirical affair. The best in acquired taste has to offer.
After a couple of fake trailers have graced the screen to start the film, I knew I was in for, not just a different comedy, but a different movie-going experience. Although the mention of Ben Stiller and Jack Black are quite like warnings to stay away and the film is released much later than it should have, TROPIC THUNDER is a riot, and that's a surprise despite all the red-herrings. This not just Ben Stiller's funniest to date (In acting or directing) or the funniest comedy in a while, it's also, so far, the best movie ever to be released in the post-DARK KNIGHT season.
For those who has been living under a rock for a long time (or just so recently), THE DARK KNIGHT is, undoubtedly, the biggest movie in a long time. Critics and local audiences have dug into the film (sometimes more than once) and devoured the film until after a month or two. This paved way to a series of rescheduling for many other movie releases, most of which rescheduled for next year. In the meantime, this so-called post-DARK KNIGHT season (or so I call it) is the time studios dump in most of the features they couldn't release to compete with THE DARK KNIGHT's big numbers. Regardless of a few anticipated releases (a big screen adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's TWILIGHT will be around your multiplexes by November), most of the movies released at the time are just minor efforts, meaning their not 'event' pictures. Even Hollywood needs its rest you know! So don't be so surprised not to see much long lines after opening nights and the night after. Despite a few hits, none of them are truly real 'big' movies. You can expect those sometime next year. But, in the meantime, TROPIC THUNDER will satisfy your quench for entertaining movie-going experience. It may just be the funniest movie of the summer, with one of the biggest laughs I ever had since...well, a very long time. That's because TROPIC THUNDER isn't some ordinary summer comedy. It's a clever and biting satire of the Hollywood tycoon. Although the main targets are the challenges of making war movies, it takes on apparently anything about the movie-making business. You name it: narcissistic actors, rookie directors, Hollywood's obsession with explosions and violence, event pictures, celebrity scandals, the Oscars and everything you can dig up on your Entertainment Weekly magazine and more. TROPIC THUNDER is not the first film attempting to do this job, but the good thing about it is that it doesn't do the job lazily. It doesn't just display the references, it attacks them directly. From referencing movies, quotes and celebs, TROPIC THUNDER doesn't chicken out in its assault at the Hollywood movie-making business.
Ben Stiller and Jack Black are at their best playing two big-shot actors in desperate need for a career change. They do so, and so much more. Steve Coogan is hilarious as the rookie film director incapable of handling the big-named actors and the heavy demands of his production studio (including Tom Cruise's effectively hilarious performance as the raunchy film exec). But in the end, Robert Downey Jr. steals the show in yet another talked-about performance as Australian Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus, who receives dozens of controversies when he underwent surgery to play a black character in his next movie. Playing what might be one of the most offensive character ever put on screen, Downey proves once again that he's one of the screen's finest actors today. He's capable of any character that demands him to be a complete oddball.
I'm quit sure not everyone will apply to TROPIC THUNDER. I'm sure some might find that Stiller has pushed it too far. But to everyone else (and I mean everybody), this is the moment they've been waiting for. It's all clear folks, it's safe to be a Ben Stiller fan again.
Rating: **** out of 5.