Tropic Thunder

Synopsis: Four Hollywood actors gets dropped into the Vietnamese jungle by their director in an attempt to increase the realism of the war movie they're making. With cameras hidden in the forest and special effects placed on strategic places they start to work their way through the scenes. Then everything goes wrong. Without knowing the actors end up outside the prepared area and somehow gets a bloodthirsty drug lord’s army on their tail...


Review: Don't take that synopsis seriously for one second. It sounds really weird and that's exactly what Tropic Thunder is. This is a full-on over-the-top action comedy designed to entertain, which it definitely achieves. From the beginning's huge war scene and all the way to the credits role it's a non-stop joyride. The jokes are funny and the action is done extremely well. In fact if it weren't for the ridiculous set-up and characters of this movie they could've easily worked in a "real" action movie. Put those things together, stir it around and add a great cast and you've got how an action comedy really should be done.


The main character in the film is Ben Stiller's action-hero archetype Tugg Speedman, loosely based on Tom Cruise. Stiller does a good job with the role, but I'll praise him more for the writing and directing of the film because Robert Downey Jr. steals the show acting wise. He plays Kirk Lazarus, a white blonde Oscar winning Australian actor, who's gotten plastic surgery to transform himself into a black man for the part. The part in the fake movie, that is. He's doing some weird stereotypic amalgam of black action movie characters like Carl Weathers in Predator and he doesn't drop character. Not even when the obviously real bullets start flying around his head. It's just a really great and hilarious performance. He really disappears into the character(s).

Another surprise for me in this movie was none other than Tom Cruise. He shows up as the fake movie's executive producer and is responsible for the biggest laugh out loud moment in the film. The rest of the cast sort of ends up in the shadows a bit though, but play their parts well. Especially Jack Black, who usually comes off as a little annoying to me. The part as an addicted actor stranded in the jungle without any more drugs makes his usual antics more fitting.


Overall the movie is pretty solid. The cast works really well together and the movie is very well shot. It looks and feels like a real war movie and at the same time manages to fully capture the over-the-topness of 80's action flicks. Then everything is pushed just that little step further to expose the absurdity and comedy of it all. The special effects, mostly huge explosions of course, looks great too and really help sell the realistic, but over-the-top look. There are some downsides though, like a few short sequences that doesn't work very well. Basically the things that involve "Simple Jack", another character played by Ben Stiller's character in the movie (the real one this time), just aren't funny and kind of break the mood. It stands out as typical weird Stiller humor in a movie that's trying to be, and mostly succeeds at being, much more original.

Summary: Tropic Thunder is a really enjoyable film with cool action, funny jokes and some really good acting. Definitely worth a look if you just want some good old popcorn entertainment.

8 / 10