With his massive success as a movie star, it’s easy to overlook Ben Stiller’s incredible talent as a filmmaker. He made the Gen-X classic Reality Bites in 1994, the overwhelmingly underrated The Cable Guy, a 1996 dark comedy that truly took advantage of Jim Carrey, and then in 2000, he helmed the brain-dead guilty pleasure Zoolander. All three incredibly well-made and entertaining films, but with Tropic Thunder he takes the responsibility of trying to create a blistering comedy combined with an action picture combined with a Hollywood satire. Wouldn’t you know it, Stiller manages to balance all these genres, and creates one of the best films of the year in the process.
The film involves the production of another film based on a novel about Vietnam soldiers that may or may not be true (don’t worry, it’s supposed to be this convoluted). The big-time producers call on rookie director Damien Cockburn (Steven Coogan) to control the biggest, highest budgeted war film in Hollywood history. The movie stars brought along for the ride are action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), the comedian with a staple in fart humor Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and Australian, five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.). Getting these high-profile personalities spells disaster for Cockburn, as the film production spirals out of control.
After feeling the pressure from both Speedman’s pesky agent Pecker (Matthew McConaughey), and the film’s verbally abusive executive producer Les Grossman (it ruins the fun to know who plays this memorable character), Cockburn takes the advice from Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the author of the original story’s novel, and puts his actors into the real hell of Vietnam. Placing cameras all around the jungle trees, Cockburn hopes he can catch the natural, gritty energy of the actors, and hopes to keep the film in check with the help of his gung-ho pyrotechnics man Cody (Danny McBride), rigging all kinds of bombs and gadgets to go off.
If it doesn’t seem like another characters already, I should probably tell you that Speedman, Lazarus, and Portnoy are joined by two other cast members. One, a rapper named Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), who is in constant promotion of his soft drink “booty sweat”, and the other a soldier specialist named Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel)–essentially the only man in the jungle who knows what he’s doing. Speedman tries to convince the other actors to stay in character and revive the sinking film, but the plan goes awry when Tugg is captured by Vietnamese heroin manufacturers and held for ransom. It is up to the other four to go back for Speedman to try and save him, though Speedman himself doesn’t even realize he’s no longer being filmed.
I can go back and go over other plot details like Portnoy’s serious heroin withdrawal in the jungle, or Lazarus’ attempt to play a character in blackface, but I didn’t want to spend all of this review trying to explain the plot. All that matters is that this film is simply hilarious. It’s hard to explain what makes this film so amazing, but I’ll try to focus on it’s balance of hysterical humor, biting satire, and exciting action. I give Stiller all of the credit that this film works so well despite all these aspects, and his incredible puppeteering of all the jokes and stunt work gives him the best comedy of 2008.
The film only scratches the surface of self-important actors, ego-centric studio heads, and money-grubbing agents, but it’s the development of the characters that makes the film so engrossing. Watching Downey Jr. play an Australian trying to play an African-American is something of extraordinary acting (with Iron Man already huge and The Soloist still to come, this could be the biggest year of his career). Still, though, there is no one actor that stands above the rest, each one having there moment of stabbing glory. And with such a long, star-studded cast, the audience gets to experience a lot of glorious moments.
Danny McBride (Red in Pineapple Express) continues to show his skill as a hilarious supporting player, and both Baruchel and Jackson hold their own with Stiller and Downey Jr. As for Jack Black, it has never been so funny watching a man struggle with his own substance abuse. It’s foolish to say Downey Jr. is great in his incarnation of Daniel Day-Lewis slash Russell Crowe–it is too obvious; and Stiller does a good job of playing a slightly more intelligent man than Derek Zoolander (though that’s not saying much). The true star of the movie is the script written by Stiller and also Justin Theroix and Etan Coen, which is filled with such brilliant dialogue and such industry know-how.
This film is so great, even the closing credits provide entertainment and surprises. It’s The Player meets Platoon, only it’s hell of a lot funnier than both of those movies. Okay, okay, I sound like I’m dwelling on hyperbole a little bit, but I can’t hold my love for this movie. It’s been rare the last couple of years that I’ve truly enjoyed a comedy that didn’t have anything to do Judd Apatow. It seems Hollywood comedies are finally coming around (though Step Brothers was a bitter disappointment). They’re starting to realize their potential to affect the audience rather than make them cringe or scratch their heads. I say this knowing knock-offs like Disaster Movie are hitting theaters in a few weeks. When I see things like that, I can always think of this film to make me feel better.
Directed by Ben Stiller