Review of Tropic Thunder (2008) by Jamie I — 26 Jun 2016

Tropic Thunder follows five actors making a film based on a book of the same name by Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte).  The only problem is Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) has become a little too primadonna and the film is a month behind schedule five days into shooting.

 Tayback decides the best way to get this movie made is to drop them in the middle of the hostile jungle.  This is where the men get caught up in a heroin ring.  This movie was funny yes.  It was pretty entertaining too.

 You might not believe this but the best part of this flick was not Stiller, Black or Downey Jr.  Sure Stiller was quirky as always and Black was ridiculous as always.  And Downey Jr. was funny as an Aussie pretending to be black for most of the film.

 You've seen his funniest moments as they appear in the trailer.  Problem was he was so over the top (intentionally of course) that he was hard to understand some of the time.  (Though my favorite line of his was "We all gay sometimes.

")  The stars of this film were the little people (and by that I mean minor characters).  While this film pulled in some notable cameos from Tobey Maguire, Christine Taylor, Lance Bass, Mickey Rooney and even Jon Voight, I'm not talking about these guys either.

 I mean people like Danny McBride as the explosions obsessed stunt coordinator.  Or Steve Coogan the limey director who doesn't care for land mines.  Even Matthew McConaughey as Tuggernuts's undoubtedly loyal agent.

 But the winner by far (though it pains me to say this) is nigh unrecognizable Tom Cruise as Les Grossman (the guy who's funding the picture).  Grossman truly lives up to his name oozing hair from everywhere.

 He has a penchant for hip hop from Flo Rida to Ludacris and continually threatens people's nuts.  It's brilliant.  Just brilliant.  I do like when Downey Jr. gets back to his blue eyed Aussie hotness.

 Yum. I say yes watch Tropic Thunder.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.