Movie
description |
-Ben
Stiller
-Jack
Black
-Tom
Cruise
When
the
box
office
champ
Ben
Stiller's
comedic
performances
aren't
a
variation
on a
soft-spoken,
put-upon
everyman
with
an
eventual
fuse,
he's
usually
playing
a
full-blown
absurdist
monster
with
an
apoplectic
Napoleon
complex.
These
bizarre
creations
usually
adorn
films
in
which
the
funnyman
provides
the
supporting
work
(DODGEBALL,
HEAVYWEIGHTS),
but,
whenever
he's
directing,
he's
free
to
build
an
entire
filmic
universe
around
his
asinine,
ludicrously
funny,
culture-skewering
characters
and
premises.
His
ZOOLANDER
(2001)
bit
at
the
entertainment
industry
with
silly
abandon,
but
Stiller
has
firmly
set
TROPIC
THUNDER
within
the
realm
of
sophisticated
Hollywood
satire.
In
it,
a
desperate
director
named
Damien
Cockburn
(Steve
Coogan)
trying
to
make
a
Vietnam
war
movie
drops
his
pampered
actors
into
the
heart
of
the
jungle.
Cockburn's
stars
include
Stiller
as
an
action
hero
who's
starting
to
make
bad
career
choices,
Jack
Black
as
an
insecure
low-brow
comedy
star
going
through
heroin
withdrawals,
and
Robert
Downey
Jr.
as
an
Australian
Oscar
winner
so
lost
in
his
"craft"
he
underwent
a
procedure
to
become
black
for
his
role.
In
the
jungle,
they
remain
under
the
delusion
that
they
are
still
being
filmed
even
after
they
encounter
a
dangerous
gang
of
druglords.
The
film's
basic
premise
has
popped
up
several
times
since
Hollywood's
1970s
golden
age
in
films
such
as
THREE
AMIGOS!
and
GALAXY
QUEST.
Where
those
films
simply
blanketed
a
classic
Overconfident
Bumbling
Idiot
comedy
showcase
with
a
pop
culture
lexicon,
however,
TROPIC
THUNDER
could
have
only
been
made,
as
on-the-nose
at
is,
by
people
who
have
been
working
in
the
Hollywood
system
for
years,
making
cutting
observations
along
the
way.
Simply
put,
this
raucous
satire
knows
big-budget
filmmaking,
the
delusional
narcissism
of
actors,
and
even
the
good
points
of
those
actors--perhaps
why
they're
celebrated--like
the
back
of
its
hand.
.
Rated
R
Portions
of
this
page
Copyright
1948-2006 Muze
Inc.
and
Muze
Europe
Ltd.
All
rights
reserved. |
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