Tropic Thunder

I was nervous about seeing 'Tropic Thunder' for quite a while, because anticipation was building within me for most of this year.  I've seen the trailer in front of just about every film I've paid to see in the last six months and when anticipation builds for that long, you start to get nervous that the film just might...well, suck.  Ben Stiller's previous directorial effort 'Zoolander' hit all the right notes with me when it was released just days after 9/11.  The film showed that not only could he take silliness and make art out of it, but he had a handle on directing and starring in a film.  Stiller in my opinion works better as the straight man (Derek Zoolander is very much that film's straight man despite being a total idiot) and with his latest pic 'Tropic Thunder'  he makes the mistake of trying to handle too much.  He and co-writer Justin Theroux (who had a hilarious unrecognizable cameo in Zoolander as the dreadlocked DJ assassin) have come up with a marvelous premise that concludes at the right moment, just when its about to collapse under its own weight.  Pairing up with Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr. is also a coup for Stiller, especially since the latter has become a cinematic icon due to Iron Man's recent release.

Stiller and Theroux have obviously seen George Hickenlooper's documentary 'Hearts of Darkness' which explored the making of Coppola's Vietnam epic 'Apocalypse Now.'  They've upped the ante comedically by having Black and Downey Jr. join Stiller as a trio of pampered actors whose behavior is having disastrous effects for a film production based on a Vietnam memoir.  Stiller plays a Matthew McConahey (who actual appears as Stiller's loyal agent) type action star, whose career is in jeopardy after playing a deaf and mentally retarded farm hand in the box-office bomb "Simple Jack".  Black's character has had more success in series of films where he plays multiple roles as members of an obnoxious family a la Eddie Murphy in 'The Nutty Professor', while Downey Jr. is a five time Oscar winner who hails from Australia and recently played a monk experimenting with homosexuality.  The trio are part of a production known as Tropic Thunder, based on a memoir by Vietnam vet Nick Nolte who lost not only his mind, but his hands in the war.

The already over-budget production is causing a headache for its producer, a megalomaniac, played by an unrecognizable Tom Cruise under prosthetic make-up that makes him resemble James Lipton from ''Inside the Actor's Studio.'  After ordering a stage hand to personally punch the film's director Steve Coogan in the face for his incompetence, Cruise demands the man get his cast in line or he will end the production and his life.  Nolte's solution for Coogan is to take the film's three leads (along with newcomer Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson as a Ludacris type rapper-turned-actor ) up into the jungle and record their attempts to survive the harsh environment via hidden surveillance cameras.  The problem is that the presence of the cast alerts a group of Vietnamese heroin manufacturers who see them as invaders.  Even worse is that the group of five don't release that the action happening around them aren't squibs and pyrotechnics planted by the film's prop man Danny MacBride, but actual bullets that the Vietnamese are shooting at them.

As the actors attempt to develop connections with their characters by using the external stimulation, they each struggle with something within themselves.  Stiller knows that he is in the decline of his career and wants to get the characterization right, while Black is secretly a heroin addict who is seriously jonezing after losing his stash.  Then there is Downey, Jr. whose role is probably what will land audiences in seats.  Though he hails from Australia, Downey Jr's character is such a committed performer that he underwent a controversial pigment alteration to play the film's African-American platoon Sergeant.  On top of that, however dire the situation they land in he continues to remain in character, speaking with a "jive" accent that drives Stiller up the wall and angers Jackson who is himself a black man.

As I said, Downey Jr. is the hook for this film, but the real shame lies in the fact that the best of what you see of him has already played in the film's trailer and promo ads.  Rather than letting Downey Jr. fully cut loose, his hilarious scenes abruptly cut to Stiller's antics, which involve him either accidentally killing a panda, getting captured by the Viet Cong or being forced to play 'Simple Jack' in a jungle stage play.  Stiller works best when he's responding to Downey Jr's characterization or playing off of him. One of their most brilliant exchanges in the film is when Downey Jr. reveals his acting method to Stiller and uses his performance as 'Simple Jack' as an example.  He says that unlike Tom Hanks in 'Forrest Gump' or Peter Sellers in 'Being There', Stiller failed because he went 'full retard' in his performance. Hilarity ensues even greater because Downey Jr. talks like a stereotypical black man throughout all of this.

Despite the fact that Stiller (as well as Black who barely registers) steals some of Downey Jr's thunder, there is a lot to like about the film.  Danny McBride's cocky and sure-fire attitude is welcome in just about any comedy, Baruchel and Jackson actually hold their own and while Cruise doesn't steal the show, his out-of-left-field performance is effective because he is consistent as basically a power-mad a-hole.  There's an agreeable amount of action within the story as well as well as some handsome production values; wherever they shot this really looks like 'Nam from '68.  The picture's strongest moments lie in the faux movie trailers that precede the main feature.  The rest of the film doesn't quite hold up against this quartet of ads, but they are worth the price of admission alone.  Seeing Tobey Maguire portray a monk that falls in love with Downey Jr. in a fake film is almost priceless.