Review of Tropic Thunder (2008) by Schmoolieg. — 15 Aug 2008

"Tropic Thunder" lambastes Hollywood for its excesses? Nonsense. This movie is just as much of a useless exercise in Hollywood excess as any other. What is supposed to make it funny is its self-awareness of that fact.

Critics are grooming this to be the comedy event of the Summer. This is unfortunate, because it is at its essence a very generic comedy. Jonesing for your monthly fix of fart/blood/fat/gay/black/retard jokes? You got it.

Can't get enough of that "white-guy-dances-awkwardly-to-hip-hop" scene that has appeared in every single big-budget comedy made in the past decade? Let's do it. Twice! There's no room for real satire when you're busy working with the broken formulae that make this type of comedy so derivative to begin with.

The opening trailers are hilarious, and the first 30-or-so minutes had the audience rolling, but the movie is insubstantial at its core. There are definitely some funny moments, but my lack of interest in the characters made the time between punchlines drag so much more.

Ben Stiller is the same old one-dimensional wacky Ben Stiller that you either love or are completely ambivalent towards. Robert Downey Jr. was the only one who gave the audience anything to chew on.