Tropic Thunder: Sticking with Stiller Pays Dividends

August 24 2008 16:05 Filed in: Movies
Looks like we have typical Vietnam War movie that’s not about war and mostly doesn’t take place in Vietnam.

There was a period a few years ago where Ben Stiller seemed to be on a mythic quest to be in every film produced. For an incredibly funny and talented comedian he quickly skyrocketed into becoming one of the most overexposed talents in the history of cinema. He’s become a popular comic leading man and has also established himself as a pretty solid director and producer. Tropic Thunder, however, would have to be his opus.

Directed and co-written by Stiller, Tropic Thunder manages to transcend your average summer comedy and show just how engaging and successful a solid script can be in the midst of an outstanding and thoughtful production with a talented ensemble cast.

The film is about the making of a Vietnam War film with three prima-donna actors who are unable to be controlled by an inexperienced, rookie director. When the film quickly balloons over-budget, the director makes a drastic decision to drop all the actors into the jungle and embark on shooting the film “guerilla” style by immersing the actors into the material in an attempt to tame their egos. Of course, things go horribly wrong immediately and comedy ensues. And in this case, it really does ensue because it’s near genius from beginning to end.

Those that have seen any of the marketing know that Robert Downey, jr plays a rather unique role. His character, an oscar-winning Australian method actor under goes a radical skin-pigmentation procedure in order to play an African-American soldier. He almost manages to steal this movie cleanly out from under everyone.

The film is full of surprise cameos as well as a major unbilled supporting role that I won’t spoil here. Stiller manages to hold his own amidst Downey and the others as an actor, but his real accomplishment is as a director and how he managed to fill this vision so completely. The imagery is very reminiscent of the standard Vietnam War era movie and he’s put together a visually pleasing, well-directed package. That, wrapped around the satirical skewering of Hollywood actors and the entire system is what makes this complete. It’s funny, it’s smart, and it delivers well enough to have finally dethroned The Dark Knight at the top of the Box Office.

If the film has a major weakness I would have to give that dubious distinction to Jack Black. I generally enjoy Black in most of his roles, but he really sticks out like a sore thumb in Tropic Thunder.

In a movie where the situation is the root of most of the humor, Black notches his over-the-top performance way too high and is generally an unwelcome almost slapstick distraction. He plays the “comedic” actor of the group cast in his first serious role. Black’s character, who ends up having a serious problem going through drug withdrawl in the jungle as the actors get deeper into the mess really offers little here to balance the rest of the film and drags most of the scenes away from what makes the movie as a whole great. He doesn’t break it though. It’s a just a disappointing aspect of an otherwise top-notch film.

I really can’t recommend Tropic Thunder enough. Too often, it’s easy to recommend a comedy that’s really just “funny enough” to get by. In the case of Tropic Thunder, you get the complete package, an all around success on most every level.

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