Tropic Thunder
After work today I decided to blow off my usual Monday afternoon responsibilities and head to the mall. After grabbing some cookies from Mrs. Fields I was walking back toward the Skytrain when the urge to watch a movie washed over me. Up I went to the theatre and it just happened that Tropic Thunder started in ten minutes.
Ticket in hand I moseyed into the theatre and sat in my favourite spot and proceeded to watch 10 minutes of cheesy commercials followed by 10 more minutes of not so cheesy, but still pretty bad commercials and then another 10 minutes of previews. (I actually love watching previews, sometimes I think its the best part of the whole movie.) Finally the movie begins, only to start with a hilarious parody of a commercial (Booty Sweat energy drinks and Bust-a-Nut chocolate bars) and three hilarious movie trailers – one for each of the actors played by Downey, Black and Stiller. The tone has been set.
When the actual movie begins we are in the middle of the filming of “Tropic Thunder” – a movie based on a book by a Vietnam veteran. Unfortunately due to the prima-donna-ness of the ensemble cast shenanigans ensue and the movie becomes “a month behind schedule after only five days of shooting”. In desperation the freshman director, on the advice of the author of Tropic Thunder, sends his cast into the woods guerilla style to shoot the film. Unfortunately for the cast and especially the director, things get a little too real.
This movie is entertaining, heart warming and surprisingly filled with some top notch acting from the entire cast (perhaps with the exception of Jack Black who is basically himself in all his films). The story was solid, touching on themes of friendship, identity and moral judgement. There is some great jealous wit that goes on between Stiller and Downey as the two actors, on opposite ends of the spectrum, battle with their insecurities. The rest of the cast takes second fiddle to these two, but each of them still has a story to be told.
The saturation of action was so great I can’t even come up with a witty analogy to describe it. I was blown away by the mass amounts of explosions, gun fights and hand-to-hand combat. There is even a moment when Jack Black is getting his ass whooped by a ten year old kid. Which tells you that even with all the action, everything is topped nicely with great comedic timing.
My greatest surprise about the movie was the maturity of it. When I first heard of Tropic Thunder through its viral ads and skit on the MTV movie awards I was picturing this half baked comedy full of terrible slap stick and raunchy jokes. There is a little of this, but mostly as a poke toward the movie industry. When it came down the the “reality” of the story the intelligence of the comedy shone through.
I recommend seeing this movie if you want an hour and half of feel good fun, a bit of suspense and you really like to see things blow up. And seeing Robert Downey’s performance as an Australian playing a black guy is definitely worth the price of admission.
Bree, you are priceless – and I thoroughly enjoyed reading that.