Tropic Thunder (2008)
Never go full retard.
THE SUMMARY: A struggling actor joins an ensemble cast to create the most expensive war movie ever made, and is dropped into the Vietnamese jungle only to discover the combat is actually real in a movie that in many ways is actually about itself. Rated 18+ for blackface, my appreciation is more about the ‘couldn’t be made anymore’ edge, and less about genuine gut laughs, but it’s a perfectly fine two hours of comedy.
FROM MOVIE-PICKER DANGEROUS SPACES: Ben Stiller has a small handful of directing credits. Most of his work is pretty good but I think this is by far his best. There are lots of memorable lines, funny characters, great satire of the Hollywood machine and Tom Cruise in possibly his best role. As an Aussie who also cringes at bad Australian accents, I am always impressed at how well Robert Downey Jr can pull the accent off. Also, there are some great moments that they should not have been able to get away with even at the time yet somehow they did.
THE BEST:
All the forbidden faces: I knew I could appreciate at least something about this movie when I was warned that the unrated director’s cut I rented was suggested for ages 18+ due to blackface. Sexual themes, violence, whatever - those are all fine for younger minds at least to limited extents, but if a white guy tints his skin, that’s only suitable for the most mature audiences.
Truthfully, I didn’t find the movie’s aggressive cultural appropriation all that funny because I didn’t find it all that clever, but I at least appreciate a willingness to commit to the bit - not just blackface, but fat Jew-face and retard-face too. I also appreciate that Robert Downey Jr. did not and has not apologized for the role.
What I do find annoying is not the movie’s fault, but many try to twist some rationalization about why the forbidden faces are okay in Tropic Thunder and not elsewhere. Some progressive viewers argue that these depictions aren’t racist, ableist, or homophobic in this case, because they are a self-aware mockery of the powers in Hollywood, a mockery of those who actually are racially or disability or sexuality insensitive. They’re actually mocking white people, so it’s okay.
If you’re pushing black stereotypes to own the whites, sorry - you’re not. Either the forbidden faces are fair game, or they aren’t. We’re not going to do a surgical motive dissection every time the joke is deployed. That’s a nonsense world where wearing blackface is progressive heroism, but talking about blackface gets you fired.
Blackface
Fat Jew face
Retard face
The parody trailers: The funniest part of the movie is only secondary context - I laughed the hardest at the opening ‘trailers’ for all the other ‘movies’ that the ‘actors’ did prior. Scorcher, Fatties, Satan’s Alley - the reason these trailers work so well is because they’re hardly parody at all. They’re perfectly juvenile and degenerate for a gigantic Hollywood budget.
I would actually like to see Simple Jack: And who am I to rip? If I give the impression I’m above that immaturity and degeneracy, I’m not. I’m exactly the sort of person who would see Simple Jack and love it. I constantly praise Dumb & Dumber as the greatest comedy I’ve ever seen - this just looks like Dumb and Dumber with horses.
The flight of Half-Squat: Like the punting of Baxter in Anchorman, there’s just something inherently funny about a small defenseless creature getting violently tossed. It’s not like it’s smart or clever, it’s just prime slapstick. I thought Half-Squat was dead, but no - there he is to pout about it afterward.
The opening parody trailers
I ain’t got a good brain
The fight of Half Squat
THE WORST:
The Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey subplot: I don’t mean to pick a fight with my loyal and reliable production assistant and Call-In Show screener Dangerous Spaces, but I have the complete opposite opinion of Tom Cruise’s character Les Grossman. I can appreciate the cultural appropriation and the effort of the fat suit, but Grossman’s screen time mostly just annoyed me. Yelling vulgarities isn’t funny for long, and it goes on for long. It’s also not that hilarious that he loves rap music so much, but that’s another drawn out joke to nowhere. I guess the punchline is Kanye and Charlamagne’s argument.
Likewise, the interaction between Les and Matthew McConaughey’s character Rick Peck I didn’t find very interesting or funny. I don’t really need to know about all this side plot to save Tugg and company - it’s just a very long way to get to a TiVo blocking an RPG for a crew that otherwise saves itself anyway. I’d prefer more scenes in the jungle, and less in LA. The jungle scenes are funnier and more relevant.
Too many guys trying to out-funny each other: After I finished the movie, I couldn’t quite figure out what was lacking in it for me. It had good, memorable lines. It had funny characters. It had exciting, intentionally silly action. There wasn’t any one particular actor or character I outright hated. The LA stuff was slower than the jungle scenes but not unwatchable. Yet I still felt unsatisfied by this movie - why?
After reflection, it’s just that this movie tries to have too many funny guys doing too many funny things. That makes punchlines more rare for each individual character, and the relationships between them more shallow. Who the lead even is in this movie is debatable. I’m sure that’s no mistake - there are scenarios you can create with bigger groups and as is a plot point of the movie itself, a star-studded cast can be a huge attraction, but there are costs to that approach that sacrifice character and plot depth. I’d prefer one or two hilarious characters over ten kinda funny ones.
THE RATING: 4/5 Wickies. More like 3.5 to me - a little above average for laughs - but half Wickies round up. Good for a few jokes of common cultural reference with some A+ parody sprinkled in.
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NEXT WEEK: The Great Escape (1963)
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