A Thunderous Blunder: A Review of Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller’s new flick, Tropic Thunder, has topped the box office, sparked considerable controversy, and features Robert Downey Jr. playing Russell Crowe playing Bernie Mac; enough to convince me it was worth checking out. It has been awhile since I’ve encountered such a contradictory film--horrid reviews yet an 8.0 on IMDb?—making me wonder which constituency was so off the mark. After viewing the film I was surprised to find that the answer was neither, and concluded that Stiller had succeeded in creating a horribly hilarious film.

What the film makes up for with a top-notch cast and memorable one-liners, it completely lacks in plot, respectability, and timely satire. What could have been an opportunity to make a masterful satire of an entire genre (a la Mel Brooks), the movie instead relies on crude humor and very memorable characters to make its comedic impact. With a few exceptions, Tropic Thunder fails to give the audience the chance to think, “this is a spoof”, or “they are making fun of _________ war movie”. Clichés aren’t absent from the film but their prevalence would have allowed Tropic Thunder to be put in the same class of satire as say Blazing Saddles or Team America, instead opting out to be placed in the shadow of Apatow-inspired blatantly belligerent comedy.

As previously stated in my last post, I am no moralist. I often take an unhealthy loathing to those too uptight to take a joke and attempt to place what is meant to be humorous in the comedic context that is appropriate. With that said, I must honestly say even I found parts of the film tasteless and mildly offensive. It is one thing to address the somewhat comedic fact that actors who choose to play mentally-challenged characters win Oscars, it is another to make Stiller’s retarded character an otherwise pointless centerpiece in the film. Downey Jr.’s rant about the professional downside of “going retard” had its place in a film making a consistent social commentary on the culture of Hollywood, but the repetitive stuttering and unnecessary return to Simple Jack did not have a relevant place in the film (unless it was Stiller’s goal to piss off advocacy groups of the subject).

While I found the retard controversy quasi-legitimate, those who opposed Robert Downey Jr. playing a black man need to shut the hell up. His performance as Kirk Lazarus was brilliant, and made fun of Russell Crowe as much as it did any black man. Not only was his character believable, his multiple accents spot on, and his reactions hilarious, but his ability to change his tone and personality with the wide array of other characters he had to deal with was remarkable. In a film that was otherwise full of forced jokes and largely missed the mark, Downey Jr.’s performance was both memorable and Oscar-worthy.

While Downey stole the show, the extensive and celebrity-filled cast is what ultimately made Tropic Thunder tolerable and perhaps even enjoyable. Every character was extremely well developed, from a fraud author attempting to profit off the Vietnam War to a rookie director trying to control a star-studded cast in his first big break. The parts were distinct and all allowed to for comedic touches to be added by the all-star cast. In a film riddled with cameos, Tom Cruise’s performance was the cameo to end all cameos. His heart-warming portrayal of a cross between Harvey Weinstein and Freakshow from Harold and Kumar with a fetish for rap and narcissism had me rolling in laughter. Unfortunately his screen-time was very limited.

All in all, Tropic Thunder wasn’t entirely a Tropic Blunder, but it sure as hell wasn’t a Tropic Wonder either. The movie has enough memorable moments and surely enough memorable characters to be worthy of a viewing, but falls a few RPG’s short of being a successful military satire. 6/10 Retards.