Film Review: Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder
Directed by Ben Stiller
Released August 13, 2008

Parodies are a tough business. Humor is the ultimate goal, but if you’re a true master of mockery like Mel Brooks, it’s important not to go too far off the deep end and lose the story in attempts to be funny. There are a number of laughs throughout “Tropic Thunder”, however, the movie descends into lunacy far too quickly. Rather than focusing on parodying war movies, the film turns its attention to making fun of the mentally challenged and putting Jack Black to comic use. Ben Stiller has always been fairly overrated in my mind, and if anything I suppose I prefer him as his idiotic Zoolander t-character instead of the uninteresting lead he’s playing here. Jay Baruchel does his very best to portray his thinly-written character, and Steve Coogan, so brilliant in “Happy Endings” a few years ago, is criminally underused. A supporting role by Tom Cruise is absolutely ridiculous, but he’s good for a few laughs. I just wonder whether he knows he’s also making fun of himself. Now Robert Downey Jr. is the only real reason to see this film. It’s as if he’s in a completely different movie, a far better one, entirely immersing himself in a character styled in the vein of super-committed actors like Daniel Day-Lewis. Downey is outright hilarious, and impresses far more than the rest of the cast. The good news is that the movie is preceded by several fake trailers, which are, sad to say, far funnier than the movie ever is.

F