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Tropic Thunder (2008)
Rate:
6
Viewed:
1/25
1/25:
Going into Tropic Thunder, I knew I would see a stupid movie and thought I would be offended.
The first did happen, but the second, not really. Yeah, it's disturbing to see war in the likes of
Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and
Hamburger Hill being parodied, but that was for the
movie within the film. If that did get released, forget it...nobody would've accepted the outcome, setting
another new low point in Hollywood.
Anyway, Tropic Thunder is an okay comedy with plenty of ups and downs. So, I'll focus on the negatives
first. The ending is too long; just get on the helicopter and move out of there. I hate Jack Black, and he's
mostly annoying in Tropic Thunder although he has several funny moments. The kid would've been killed when the fat guy
landed on him in one scene.
Some, if not all, of the actors should've died during their engagement with the Vietnamese heroin manufacturers only because they aren't
trained killers. While they're out there in the jungle, why isn't anyone from the crew looking for them? By
the way, there's no reason for Hollywood to shoot the film in Vietnam; it'll be done in the Philippines just
like Platoon and Apocalypse Now
while using their historically-accurate military equipment (Tropic Thunder was actually shot on
location in Hawaii).
Now, for the positives, the script is somewhat catchy which was started by Ben Stiller in 1987 while
working on a film called Empire of the Sun. Seeing Tom Cruise and Nick
Nolte, two serious heavyweight actors, in this piece of crap is shocking enough, but they've done a good job with Tom Cruise
never having acted this way in previous films. Robert Downey, Jr., received an
Oscar nomination (I have no issues with him being blackfaced; Daniel Day-Lewis would've done the same thing, and it's meant
to be a parody of The Method acting), but Tom Cruise should've gotten it, too.
The most interesting part of the entire film is when Ben Stiller's and Robert Downey, Jr.'s characters had a serious
talk about how to game the system in terms of winning an Oscar. The latter kept
telling the former to "never go full retard" when playing an intellectually disabled character. It's true.
As a matter of fact, Cliff Robertson was the first person to do it, and I mentioned that in my review of
Charly years ago. It's a pet peeve of mine for this sort of thing along with alcoholics and hookers.
As for the director played by Steve Coogan, it happened to John Frankenheimer when he had a
huge control issue over Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer during the making of
The Island of Dr. Moreau.
There are others, but this is the most infamous besides
Mutiny on the Bounty, again with Marlon Brando.
Plenty of movie references are made, and surprisingly, one of them is A Cry in the Dark.
The thing about Nick Nolte playing somebody whose battle experiences were faked is actually more common than people
think, and that's not limited to war; that's why I say never trust these biography books unless they were written by somebody else who's
independent and reputable. Tom Cruise's character is modeled after a combination of Scott Rudin, Joel
Silver, and Harvey Weinstein who were eventually dropped by Hollywood because of their abusive behaviors. It
was his idea which wasn't originally in the script.
All in all, Tropic Thunder would've been more successful if it was highly realistic, and it didn't
help matters any that a panda was killed with its head being used for the purpose of parading around.