Tropic Thunder

This is mainly what Tropic Thunder deals with - greed in Hollywood, communication problems, actors each with their own flaws and the general difficulties of such a collaborative process.

It satirises them by placing them in context with ‘real life’ incidents, whilst this is a smart and unique angle, not nearly half the audience will grasp half of the concept.

So the film’s narrative tries to provide an alternate route, for those who will not get the intertextual gags (Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Southern Comfort etc.) so laughs can be found elsewhere.

However, ostracising your audience in different parts of a comedy film is a bad move. Tropic Thunder is essentially a pastiche to the action/war genre; it works well in some ways, telling us truths that we already know and putting in many intertextual references in the right places... but it is simply not funny enough.

A film I wanted to really like, with an interesting premise one would assume Tropic Thunder, with its talent and controversial subject matter, would create moments of comic genius and memorable moments.

However, it is mainly standard fare. There are many reasons for this; Ben Stiller’s lacklustre direction, the $90 million budget, ropey script and a slight case of uncontrollable ID (the film thinks it knows what it wants to be but comes across very uncertain).

The plot consists of a troubled shoot of a war movie by director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan). The actors are struggling to gel and ill-timed pyrotechnics blow $9 million of their budget.

Basically nothing is being filmed, so Damien decides to plomp the five actors into the middle of the jungle and scare them with authentic combat to get results. The actors consist of Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) a struggling A-list star, yearning for an Oscar. Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) a critically reviled but financially successful substance addict of comedy films. Then there is Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) who is Robert DeNiro possessed. Taking method acting to a whole new level, he decides to undergo skin pigmentation in the role to play a black sergeant. However when director Cockburn is killed on set, the actors are faced with a real enemy: a local drug cartel.

There is great controversy surrounding Downey Jr.’s role, which is bound to be brought up again when Spike Lee releases his latest Miracle at St. Anna (a war movie depicting black men’s role in the war effort).

However the character is merely satirical of those who perhaps see method acting as a step too far.

The character of Alpha Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) however is used to voice the concern of those who see it as wrong. Crucially Alpha and Kirk do not get on in the film and Alpha many times throughout points out the stupidity of Kirk’s obsession with the role he’s in.

In fact Downey Jr. provides almost all of the laughs in the film; his performance is great, making Kirk a fool but likeable too. Tom Cruise also provides laughs as the corrupt studio boss who swears down the phone making obscene threats when he can. He revisits Magnolia territory with great results.

It’s Cruise and Downey Jr. who seem to carry the film though, Stiller provides his usual pathetic individual routine, with a character that really isn’t likeable. Then there’s Jack Black’s character that is totally unnecessary and could be taken out of the script all together.

The script’s only strong points are Downey Jr’s lines which are full of wisdom, best displayed when he talks Speedman through why he didn’t win an Oscar playing ‘Simple Jack’ which is potentially offensive, yet arguably completely true.

Despite the film boasting some good performances and excellent visuals for a comedy, it still falls short of being the best comedy of the year, which it so easily could have been.

The script should be packed with more laughs and tightened up a bit but due to a $90 million budget, it does what the film condemns; it lets money dictate the film's whole direction.

The fake trailers that precede the film are actually funnier than the film itself, which will anger some and only remind the audience of what could have been a great film.

Its hardly memorable stuff but still worth the watch. What will be remembered is the controversy of Robert Downey Jr.’s character but if that’s what the film was aiming for they set the bar too low.

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