Review of Tropic Thunder (2008) by Candy R — 15 Feb 2013

I avoided watching this film like the plague for as long as I could (5 years ain't bad!) but alas I finally watched it. The reasons I avoided it were clear- it looked to represent many things about modern comedies that I didn't like- primarily that they aren't funny and secondly that they slither into offensive territory, not to make some kind of statement, create humour through irony, or even just for shock value. It's simply because there is an ignorance and uncaring attitude within modern Hollywood that finds it acceptable to mock various sensitive issues under the guise of comedy. I'm not a sensitive person by any stretch of the imagination- I love South Park & many "un PC" comedians- the problems I have with films like those that Tropic Thunder seems to represent is the unimaginative, pointless and cheap use of this kind of material simply because it's currently considered trendy. As I suspected Tropic Thunder is indeed somewhat guilty of this.

The other reason, or reasons, I avoided this film? Stiller and Black. I enjoy some of their works, in fact I quite liked "Envy" which stars both Stiller and Jack but they've both done their fair share of horrendous attempts at funny and even when they are humorous, it's all the same formula- I got bored with Derek Zoolander when he appeared in every film that wasn't Zoolander.

With all of this in mind I admit that I went into the film with some bias against it. I think my fears turned out to be correct but thankfully not to the extent that I thought they would- there is some intelligence behind the script and I feel it outweighed the amount of cheap thrill comedy described above. With so many big names all in the limelight too, Stiller and Black weren't able to become too overbearing and annoying and with more fresh comedy performances like that from Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise, it didn't all seem like an ego trip for one person in particular but rather one big one for everyone which is somehow less annoying!?

The fact of the matter is that this is clearly a comedy and, considering my dislike towards most modern comedies, it actually did fairly well- I got a fair amount of laughs out of it and I didn't feel cheated at the end of it. It still didn't come close to meeting the hype that was around it after it's release but I am pleased that this was a real attempt at humour and not just a cash-cow filled with knock-knock and dick jokes. It's not going to make a list of my favourite comedy films though, that's for sure.