Review of Tropic Thunder (2008) by M. C — 13 Nov 2014

Old Thoughts (1 Star) starts funny, ends crumby. its ridiculous which is to be expected. but I found it distasteful in its mockery of Vietnam vets, Vietnamese people, and mentally retarded people. weak plot. anticlimactic events. Ausie Robert Downy Jr is beautiful though. those are some blue eyes!

New Thoughts-.

My tastes have sure changed. I love this movie now. I still agree that it starts super funny and loses steam somewhere in the middle. I understand now what they weren't trying to make fun of retarded people, just Hollywood's attitude about actors playing retarded characters. Still, I think Ben Stiller saying something along the lines of "I had to make myself think it was okay to be retarded" is offensive. Whatever. I'm not interested in the controversy. I think the faux trailers are hilarious! And the characters are so funny and great. RDJ is BRILLIANT! I love watching him, even when he's not the focus of a shot. He's just so good. He deserved to get an Oscar nod for it, however ironic. Nick Nolte is hilarious. Especially just how he shakes his head "no" to the question of if he cried when he lost his hands. I love some of the faces Ben Stiller makes. I love Tran, that kid is awesome. I love characters like that: the total badass that is just as cool as they are ruthless. This might be Tom Cruise's best role evar! I could watch him dance and listen to him tear people a new one all day! I respect that he took on that kind of role and uglied up. I love the credits. I love the music. Jay Baruchel's voice just reminds me of How To Train Your Dragon and gives me warm fuzzies. I love how quotable the movie is. It has that sort of quality that I notice with movies like Tarantino's that many of the images and lines and moments stick with you afterwards. I really like this movie, though I do think it loses it's momentum.