Tropic Thunder Details

The funniest film you'll see this year

Tropic Thunder was always going to be a Marmite movie - the crude humour, the gore and the Hollywood in-jokes are not to everyone's taste. But, as any filmmaker will tell you, the films that split people down the middle are the ones worth the effort.

There isn't much of a plot, but that's of little importance. The film is best viewed as a series of jokes, most of which hit the mark in spectacular fashion.

Stiller makes an able leading man, but he's overshadowed by his amazing supporting cast, particularly the brilliant Danny McBride as an explosives expert, the wonderful Brandon T Jackson as the token black guy, an unrecognisable Tom Cruise as a potty mouthed, balding Producer and of course, Robert Downey Jr as Kirk Lazarus as the Australian method actor who during the entire movie is in black face. This was a risky career move - but RDJ not only pulls it off - he MAKES the movie. In what is the best comic performance EVER and the best overall performance of this year (second only to Ledger's Joker), RDJ gets 75% of the laughs, namely through the hilarious dialogue between him and Jackson's Alpa Chino (great name!). This is also a credit to the writers who have created a wonderfully intelligent script. Those who understand the inner workings of Hollywood and the film making process will have an enhanced experience and get much more out of this film.

Those who protested against the 'offensive' material in the film simply showed that they've missed the point. It is not mentally handicapped people that are the butt of the jokes - its the actors attempting to portray them, its Hollywood's exploitive nature. Similarly with the 'offensive' gore - its a comment on Hollywood excess and insensitive attitude to war and death.

This is the most expensive comedy ever made and iy shows - the film not only boasts a quality script and cast but it looks brilliant too with some awe-inspiring explosions.

Two thumbs up for reminding us what 'comedy' really means and an extra thumb for RDJ's performance alone. Leave your politically correct attitude at home and go see this film!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Tropic Blunder?

This is a good spoof movie, and yes it is funny if you like Ben Stiller and Jack Black but you might find that both have given much better and funnier past performances in some of their other old movies. You might find that some of the spoof trailers seen at the start of the movie are very funny but the rest of the movie does not maintain the same level of humour, even if you like some of the crude jokes dotted all along the way. Maybe you could say it can make some people laugh - probably yes (a bit), but did I LOL - no.