Great action-comedy-parody

Rating: 8/10 (22 May 2009)

Recap: An inexperienced director is stuck between his starstudded cast that won't do as they're told and his rich but abusive producer. In a final attempt to make his film before he is shut down he tries something drastic. He leaves his actors in the middle of the jungle telling them he has put cameras and explosives all over the jungle, and now it's up to them to act it out. Unfortunately the next thing he does is stepping on a landmine and therefore can't explain that the villains (and their guns) that appear are real and not part of his movie.
Comments: It's not easy trying to do many things at the same time, often ending up doing each part half-hearted. But here Ben Stiller is writing, directing and acting (watch the extra material on this) and doing each part very well. In special he has put together a script (with the help of others i.e. Justin Theroux) that is a little daring but mixes action, comedy and parody at a level that I haven't seen before. It is a risk to diversify too much but Stiller's script allows him to do it and the result is great actually.
It does help that Stiller has gotten a good cast to work with, and that stars have turned up for cameos giving the movie an edge you can't write or act.
However, it may well be Robert Downey Jr that steals the movie with his performance as Kirk Lazarus, or Sgt Osiris, whichever persona he is in at the time. The line "I stay in character until I've done the DVD commentary" is really telling. His competition might be Tom Cruise, aka Les Grossman, the abusive producer. The best Cruise I've seen in many years.
Well, I liked it very much. It's not often you get a movie that can combine own jokes, obvious and hidden spoofs, and a lot of explosions in a balanced way that Tropic Thunder manages to do. I got a lot of laughs out of it. My hat is off for Stiller, please do another one? 8/10