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War is hell, but Hollywood is worse
“Tropic Thunder” hits its comedic mark
By Christy Brownfield
Tom Cruise deserves a nod for his acting in the film. Indeed, his Les Grossman character is reason enough to go see the flick.
Is it possible to qualify one film as the greatest comedy of all time? Probably not, but Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder” should at least get a mention on the list of greatest comedies.
Filled with an all-star cast, “Tropic Thunder” is a movie which makes fun of actors, and may be the key to reviving Tom Cruise’s career.
The basic story line follows a group of actors working on a film called “Tropic Thunder,” who unknowingly become the targets of a drug ring somewhere in the Asian jungle. While the drug ring villains are playing for real, the actors still think they are playing their parts.
The story line, while outrageous and hilarious, pales in comparison to the stories behind the five main characters. Ben Stiller plays a down-and-out actor, Tugg Speedman, whose last film was a box office flop entitled “Simple Jack.” Speedman hopes his serious role in the new film will legitimize his fading career.
Stiller received negative press about his character’s attitudes toward the mentally disabled, although he explained in interviews that he was trying to make a point about actors who take on such roles and as a result win praise and awards.
In that same respect, Robert Downey Jr. plays a celebrated method actor, Kirk Lazarus, who completely assumes the identity of whatever character he may be playing at a given moment. For “Tropic Thunder,” Lazarus undergoes a procedure to have his skin darkened in order to play the roll of a black man. Instead of being offensive, Downey actually draws out and addresses (albeit in a comedic way) a variety of race issues, making use of brilliant one-liners, the theme song from the 1970s TV sitcom “The Jeffersons” and his interaction with another African-American character in the film.
One of the other highlights is Jack Black’s character, a blatant caricature of Eddie Murphy, who is going through heroin withdrawal throughout most of the film. After he runs out of “jelly beans” (code for heroin), Black’s character, Jeff Portnoy, spends the rest of the movie experiencing a variety of symptoms before finally being strapped to a wild ox.
Tom Cruise deserves a nod for his acting in the film. Indeed, his Les Grossman character is reason enough to go see the flick. Without giving away too much, his booty dance to Flo Rida’s “Low” will have viewers appreciating the lyrics “Shawty had them apple bottom jeans/Boots with the fur” in a whole new way.
With all the one-liners, big names (even Matthew McConaughey has a pretty decent-sized role) and ridiculous scenarios, “Tropic Thunder” is bound to go down in comedic history alongside other classics such as “Spaceballs” and “Beverly Hills Cop.”
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