Not just a slapstick spoof - a witty, wicked Hollywood satire

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2008)

Over-the-top movie parodies have become a genre all their own, and they come with standard expectations. You expect broad, lowbrow, mostly visual comedy, and you hope that all the big belly-laughs weren't in the trailers. You expect plenty of T&A to fill in the gaps between gags (or between gags that work) and also plenty of good times to check your watch.
Tropic Thunder is much smarter than that. It works on the movie parody belly-laugh level if that's all you want, but the gags have other gags hidden inside and budding off in all directions. There's the broad spoof that you paid to see, and there's the "serious movie" that's even funnier if you pay attention. Every time Tropic Thunder starts to get "serious," watch for the really clever bits of satire. If a scene or an exchange between characters seems completely zinger-free, it's just barely possible that the movie is making fun - of you.
Because everything is fair game for satire in this comprehensive razz at Hollywood and showbiz, including the audience and its expectations. If Half-Squat and his twig Oscar got an awww out of you - they gotcha. They got the actors, they got the directors, they got the studios, they got the writers, they got every target in sight, and they got them all good. This is a movie where the more times you see it and the more you think about it, the funnier it gets.
I suspect this movie is even funnier to showbiz insiders. Some of the gags-within-gags are a little inside, like the discussion about how Blue Ray beat HD-DVD. But in the first place, lots of people are media-savvy nowadays, and in the second place common sense and a little thought will demystify a lot of the inside stuff. For example, it's not hard to imagine that desperate directors who risk the health and safety of their cast and crew because they're behind schedule and over budget are not beloved figures in Hollywood. It's also not hard to imagine that movie-makers don't particularly love TiVO.
Anyway, Tropic Thunder so well-conceived, well-written, well-directed, and well-performed that everything works whether it's inside or not. I don't care if Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey) is supposed to be Russell Crowe or a composite of several well-respected method actors. He's hilarious either way. I don't need to know which studio boss Tom Cruise is sending up to love his portrayal of a big shot whose entire job, apparently, is telling people to go f*ck themselves. I love the way the movie avoids the easy stereotype for something funnier (as with Matthew MacConaughey's agent) or plays dueling clichés one against the other (as with Nick Nolte's writer).
This is not an important movie. This is not a movie that will change your life. But it is a smart, well-made Hollywood satire that will keep you laughing from before it even starts (hint: don't blow off the previews when you see it) through the closing credits.