Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey) – One of my favorite comedies in years, this Ben Stiller production attracted incredible star power in a raunchy, bawdy romp about a group of famous actors dropped into the jungle in Vietnam for a serious war movie. Stiller plays the once top box office star whose sequels have finally run their course and whose serious role as a mentally challenged person (they use the word “retard” often in the movie) was considered “one of the worst movies in history.” Robert Downey plays a much-awarded Australian actor who has a “skin pigmentation transplant” to become black for the movie. Jack Black plays a drugged-out actor trying a serious role after a successful series of raunchy, flatulent-laden comedies that make him popular. Along with two other actors, they constitute a squadron in the Vietnam War facing heavy enemy fire on an impossible mission. When the shooting runs over budget and behind schedule and the actors start feuding, the head of the studio, played way over-the-top by mega-serious star Tom Cruise, comes unglued. So the decision is made to send the actors deep into the Vietnamese countryside to truly experience the terrain and improve their performances. Things go wrong, of course. The director is killed by a land mine. Bad guys in the form of poppy growers emerge. And the actors are in deep yogurt.
Meanwhile, Stiller’s agent, played by hunk-of-the-decade Matthew McConaughey, becomes irate that his client doesn’t get the Tivo he negotiated for him. To add even more fun, we get Nick Nolte as the author of the book upon which the “true” movie is predicated. As confused and contrived as this is, the movie is laugh-out-loud funny, gross, and dumb. I loved it. Unlike the typical grunge comedies, this one has great special effects, subtle throw-away lines, and free-wheeling performances. This film is worth it just to see Cruise ham it up as a bald and brash brat. If you hate bad language and politically inappropriate gags, you won’t like this. But if you want to have a great time, I recommend it highly.