Tropic Thunder

By Kate Xian
August 15, 2008

Though Tropic Thunder has drummed up a firestorm of controversy (why didn’t 21 get any press for its reverse racism?), droves of Ben Stiller fans are still sure to hit theatres this week to check out his latest, greatest, epic war film to date. Bursting with cameos from surprise A-list stars and bad jokes about the mentally challenged (I feel guilty even for saying it), Tropic Thunder, likely one of the most expensive comedies ever to hit the big screen features Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Brandon Jackson, Jay Baruchel and Stiller himself as a group of misfit celebrities starring in…the most epic and expensive war film to date.

With a cast as big as its budget, Tropic Thunder rolls out dozens of familiar faces in some expected and unexpected roles. Nick Nolte as the broody war veteran fits like a glove, Matthew McConaughey as the over zealous yet endearing agent is as usual, cute as a button, and a certain famous Scientologist as the evil movie mogul is sure to grab some laughs. Often feeling rather Austin Powers-ish, Tropic manages to dig up as many famous faces as possible and tries to push the jokes to a whole new level but somehow it plateaus early on and doesn’t reach that level of absurdity that you want to be taken to.

Conceptually, Tropic Thunder has a lot of potential for making you laugh moment to moment, joke to joke, but somehow the film doesn’t manage to grab you as you would have expected. Like a modern day SNL skit, many of the jokes have a tendency to run on too long, killing the punchline. And the greatest fear that viewers have about comedies, Tropic sadly rings true – the funniest bits are in the trailer. Ironically the film opens with four mock trailers introducing the archetypes of celebrity A-list actors, Tugg Speedman (Stiller) as a Schwarzenegger slash Van Damme slash Dwayne “Rock” Johnson action star; Alpa Chino (Jackson) as blinged out rapper turned actor; Jeff Portnoy (Black) as a white version of Eddie Murphy as Eddie Murphy comedian; and Kirk Lazarus (Downey) as the serious, methodical, and entirely eccentric Academy Award winner.

Following his success as Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man in this summer’s early blockbuster, Robert Downey Jr. surprises us again with his near invisible performance in Tropic. Putting the words “sexy” and “Robert Downey Jr.” together in the same sentence was one thing in Iron Man (who would have known?), but Downey’s take on the uber-serious Lazarus who takes “immersing yourself in a role” to an all new level is in itself another shock to the system. Lazarus undergoes a radical cosmetic procedure to change the colour of his skin for his role in Tropic Thunder’s fictional film by the same name. At first glance you wouldn’t think the confused black dude is in fact a white dude who use to take himself too seriously. Downey brilliantly slips away into Lazarus and is one of my favourite things about the film. Yes the mumble-y part of him was at times difficult to follow, but overall Downey pulled out a performance that I looked forward to among the over-the-top and somewhat trite jokes and tricks.

The mock opening trailers set up the main characters cleverly but unfortunately they were the same length as a real trailer – nearly two and half minutes of one long running joke. Again, Downey’s intro trailer as Lazarus came out on top, with a surprise cameo and one of the funniest jokes of the entire film. Stiller sitting in the director’s chair, definitely knows how to exploit his friends’ ‘celebrity.’ He turns their public image on its head and pushes them to utter foolishness. However, Stiller had some heavy reliance on banking on stereotypes to get laughs, which is likely one of the film’s biggest flaws. Many of these jokes just registered as being cheesy or campy, rather than original.

Overall, Tropic had some good moments and unexpected laughs (*ahem look out for a former Nsync member), but for the most part the comedy falls flat for its predictability and long running jokes. Its heavy reliance on the use of “celebrity” also takes away from the flick slightly as you spend more time watching these stars make a fool of themselves instead of watching the film as a whole. Okay, enough psychobabble, bottom line is – I simply didn’t laugh as much as I thought I would have. And no fart joke big enough could have saved it. But its soundtrack comes close.

Release Date: August 13, 2008
Running Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Director: Ben Stiller
Producers: Stuart Cornfeld, Eric McLeogd, Ben Stiller
Screenplay: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux
Director of Photography: John Toll
Editor: Greg Hayden