Movie Review: Tropic Thunder · 8:02pm Jun 13th, 2018
The night before my dad and I went to see The Producers on the big screen, we sat down and watched a movie he'd rented earlier that week.
Tropic Thunder.
I'd heard of it, knew it was some kind of war movie comedy, but knew next to nothing else about it.
...Good Lord, was I in for a hell of a night. 
Right out the gate, Tropic Thunder grabs you with a series of hilarious spoof trailers that introduce the major players of the film: washed-up action star Tugg Speedman (played by Ben Stiller, who also directed and co-wrote), who's on the sixth entry in his "Scorcher" series and wants to break into serious acting; drug-addicted comedian Jeff Portnoy (played by Jack Black) whose comedies mainly consist of fart jokes; ultra-dedicated award-winning method actor Kirk Lazarus (played by Robert Downey Jr.); and rapper Alpa Chino (played by Brandon T. Jackson), who's trying to cross over into acting... and to promote his "Bust-a-Nut" candy bar and "Booty Sweat" energy drink.
Each of the fake advertisements introducing these characters are hysterical: from the ad for "Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown" that hilariously spoofs sequelitis, to the stupid-as-hell trailer for Portnoy's "The Fatties: Fart 2"...
The real gem of the bunch, for me anyway, is the ad for Kirk Lazarus' blatant Oscar Bait historical drama "Satan's Alley," where he plays a gay Irish monk at a 12th century monastery.
I was in stitches before the movie even began...
And the movie itself?
The laughs keep coming, right out the gate, with a pitch-perfect spoof of every Vietnam movie cliche you can imagine... they crammed in references to Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Rambo... and probably more, and uproariously take the piss out of all of them. XD
However, nothing is going smoothly during shooting of the movie (itself called Tropic Thunder). Production is months behind schedule and way over budget, the majority of the actors are all being prima donnas, and the inexperienced director Damien Cockburn (played by Roger Coogan) is in serious hot water with the film's executive producer, Les Grossman (played by a scene-stealing Tom Cruise in a bald wig and fat suit) after a scene goes wrong and a million-dollar pyrotechnics sequence is wasted.
In-universe, Tropic Thunder is a laughingstock in the news, thanks to widespread news coverage of the various incidents dogging production - as well as controversy over Kirk's casting as the African-American member of the squad, Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris. In preparing for the role, Kirk has undergone "pigmentation alteration" surgery, a move that has attracted tons of scorn from the media, and resentment from fellow co-star (and actual black man) Alpa Chino. Kirk's refusal to break character throughout production of the film (he's even sworn to remain in-character for the DVD commentary!) is yet another bit of frustrations adding to the making of the movie.
To try and salvage production of the movie, Cockburn takes the advice of hook-handed veteran and consultant John "Four Leaf" Tayback (played by Nick Nolte), and drops the actors in a stretch of jungle that has been filled with hidden cameras and rigged explosions to try and shoot the film "guerilla style"...
Unfortunately for the actors and film crew, the location chosen for this faked war is right in the middle of the Golden Triangle - the home of a heroin-producing triad gang known as Flaming Dragon.
And even more unfortunately, the drug dealers think that the actors are in fact, real soldiers sent to bust up their operation...
Thus begins an absolutely hilarious trainwreck of misunderstandings, bad decisions, and frantic improvisation, as the actors blunder through the jungle and try to stay alive... To go into detail on some of the events in this film would just spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but trust me, there is lots of hilarious material in the film. They skewer everything about Hollywood, from actors to producers, and the pretentiousness and idiocy that often go on behind the scenes of any film.
Some of the best material to go with this involves the character of Les Grossman, and Tugg's manager, Rick Peck (played by Matthew McConaughey). Although he only has at most fifteen minutes of screentime, Grossman is such a memorably profane, egotistical and greedy figure that he damn near steals the film. A shining example of this is when the drug dealers call in with a ransom demand, and Grossman responds with a tirade worthy of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.
Many of the other actors turn in hilarious and memorable performances too. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Ben Stiller in this movie: most of my prior exposure to him had been through films like Madagascar and Night at the Museum, and I hadn't exactly been impressed with those films. But as Tugg Speedman, he offers a hilarious and engaging performance, playing a washed-up action star who is desperate to succeed and escape the stigma of his prior box office failures.
Jack Black also turns in an entertaining performance, and one that serves as an interesting meta-commentary on comic actors.
Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino is an unexpected delight, as we get to see more past his ultra-aggressive and heterosexual rapper image to find out that he's actually one of the sanest and most rational characters in the film. This leads to one of the movie's best gags, in his mounting frustrations with Kirk Lazarus' method-acting...
And speaking of Kirk Lazarus... Robert Downey Jr. turns in an absolutely fantastic performance as Kirk Lazarus / Lincoln Osiris. As ridiculous and offensive as the idea of a white actor playing a black character is, the film (and Downey's acting) make it clear that it's the goddamn point: the concept is a biting satire of the absurd lengths that method actors go to, and how ridiculous it all is. But in addition to the hilarity, there's also a bit of greater depth to the character, as it becomes clear that Lazarus' insane dedication to his parts is motivated by deep-seated insecurities about his own identity.
(This leads to one of the film's most quoted lines, during an argument between Kirk and Tugg over who they really are: "I KNOW WHO I AM! I'm the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!!" It's a scene that pinballs from hilarious to oddly sad, and back to hysterical again.)
Another fun part of the cast - and one that I'm sorry it took so long to mention - is the character of rookie actor Kevin Sandusky (played by Jay Beruchal). The only member of the film's cast who actually went to the actors' boot camp (and, the only member who read the script), Kevin offers plenty of laughs by virtue of being the most sane and normal person in the crew... and the only guy without a major secret, insecurity or screw-up.
Tropic Thunder is a completely insane, wonderfully crazy and screwed-up story. If you have the right mindset, and can get past the more outrageous and unfortunate-looking aspects of the movie, it is definitely well worth watching.
Quite recommended. 
This sounds like delightful batshit insanity. I need to find this.
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Yeah, it's really something.
I hope you like it ^_^