The summer of R-rated comedies is coming to a close with what could be the funniest of them all: Tropic Thunder. By blowing the top off political correctness through constant comedic jabs at race, sexual preference and physical handicaps, it’s also likely to be one of the most shunned.
Written and directed by Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder is about a group of guys who set out to make the biggest Vietnam War movie of all time. The only problem is that this combination of prima donnas is lethal.
Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a washed up action star who received nothing but negative attention after playing a disabled kid in a feel-good family flick. Jack Black plays Jeff Portnoy, a one-trick actor whose roles imitate those of Eddie Murphy: playing multiple characters in fat suits and makeup in purely potty-humor-based movies. And Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a much-hyped actor who won an Academy Award for playing a Brokeback monk and is now criticized for undergoing pigment surgery in order to play a black soldier.
After blowing one of the most expensive takes, the director decides to ditch the actors in the jungle under constant candid surveillance in order to make a real, gritty film. But once the actors head in the opposite direction of the cameras, they cross paths with and mistake real hostile guerillas for actors.
If what you already know about the movie makes it sound appealing to you, then you’ll be more than surprised and entertained by the things you don’t know. Tropic Thunder is completely filled with hilarious cameos by huge actors when you’d least expect to see them. There are several side-splitting elemental surprises that your friends will spoil if they see it before you.
If you’re considering seeing a midweek movie, Tropic Thunder opens this Wednesday. And if you’re really looking forward to it, see it as soon as possible, so you don’t get burned out on quotes before you even see it for yourself.
