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1/10/2008
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Tropic Thunder (2008)
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Tropic Thunder is a film that could so easily have been rubbish. The trailers released for it did not raise expectations and I had it marked down for an entertaining failure. Luckily I was mainly left surprised. The film takes up the idea of actors trying to make the definitive war move. There is the action move star, the comedian and the award winner all introduced brilliantly with their own mock film trailers at the start of the main film.
The story itself is not to be commended as such it is just in the casting and the characters that the humour and entertainment occur. In fact at no time during the films running is the plot anything other than predictable. The story revolves around a group of actors from different backgrounds being sent to the jungle to make the perfect war movie by making the emotions real, not telling the actors when things go wrong. Of course things do not go to plan and the story gets more entertaining. Of the characters though there is an obvious stand out performance coming from Robert Downey Jr in the form of his award winner Kirk Lazarus who gets pigment surgery so he can play the platoon's black soldier. Cue a large number of lines that see him taking the character too far in the wrong circumstances. Jack Black's character is a little pointless and seems to just exist for him to offend Eddie Murphy (something he has succeeded in doing) and Ben Stiller is right in a role he obviously meant for himself all along. Of the outside crew Matthew Mconaghey does a better job as Stiller's agent that Owen Wilson could ever do and Tom Cruise puts in his least serious performance to date as he plays the films evil producer. Along with slightly cringeworthy dance moves.
In conclusion, I did enjoy this film. The characters are developed brilliantly and they make the film what it is. The story is unfortunately a bit shallow and this detracts from the set pieces built up. It is cliched (on purpose) and a little unbelievable and poor in others but if you want a good comedy I do not think there has been a better release in this half of 2008.
Review by Jonathan Little
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