"Tropic Thunder" Review and Trailer

Movie: Tropic Thunder * Official Site	In Theaters: August 13, 2008
Runtime: 107 minutes	Directed and Written by: Ben Stiller
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material	Gecko Rating:

It’s not often that you finish watching a movie and wish there was more. That’s how I felt when the end credits rolled on Tropic Thunder. It isn’t laugh-out-loud funny all the way through, but the trio of Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr. makes it all worthwhile.

I also love that this movie is different from anything I’ve seen recently. It pokes fun at Hollywood and the film industry in so many ways, you don’t even realize how many until you’re in the car driving home from the theater. And since there are some major players in this film, they’re basically poking fun at themselves, which is cool. It shows they’re not taking things too seriously. And don’t you dare miss the beginning of the movie! It’s really funny.

More after the jump, including a trailer…

The story follows a group of actors — Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) — who are shooting a dramatic Viet Nam movie based on a book by veteran Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte, at his snarliest, gruffest best). But things aren’t going well, and the director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan, who’s also hot right now in Hamlet 2 — if you haven’t seen it, go see it), gets an ultimatum from the studio’s head honcho, Les Grossman (Tom Cruise, who plays majorly against type as a balding, overweight studio exec).

The plan is to send the actors out into the jungles of Southeast Asia to make it more authentic. But things go from bad to worse, and they soon find themselves in the middle of a real-live drug war which includes smarmy guys with guns, led oddly by a machine-gun-toting kid (Brandon Soo Hoo) who gives new meaning to the term “bully.”

Matthew McConaughey plays Tugg’s agent, and several people make cameos, including Jon Voight, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lance Bass, and Jason Bateman.

Few things about Hollywood escape scrutiny here, including drug addictions, the weirdness of fame, big stars with G4 planes, awards shows, greedy film execs, and the lengths to which people will go for fame and fortune. But underlying all of that is the fact that there are still *real people in the film business looking for a few sincere friends to help get them through.

The Special Olympics is protesting and boycotting the film for its use of the word “retard” and related content (one of Stiller’s previous characters in the movie was a mentally challenged guy). I don’t know…it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. Everyone gets made fun of in this movie. And the actors are all basically making fun of themselves! Robert Downey, Jr. plays a white guy playing a black guy, for cripe sakes.

NOTE TO PARENTS: This movie is rated R, but I think it’s ok for kids 16 and older. There are a few references to the male anatomy and gay sex, but most of the R rating comes from violence (several gory scenes involving explosions and body parts, including a decapitated head) and language. You’d have to search far and wide to find a sentence that doesn’t include the F-word.

Watch the trailer:

Images: Tropic Thunder, Dreamworks SKG, 2008