Tropic Thunder offends, entertains
By: Jesse Morrison
Issue date: 8/14/08 Section: Entertainment
I woke up yesterday to a phone call from a creditor threatening to ruin my life for the next seven years if I didn't pay him an ungodly sum of money.
That cemented my entire day. Nothing could change the course of it. Tuesday was going to suck. Just as I was getting ready to go out the door for class, a friend called and said there was a screening for "Tropic Thunder." Decisions, decisions. Go to class and soak in the ever-present mundanity of life while stressing about impending bankruptcy or ditch school and see a comedy. It was a no-brainer.
After watching the film, I am convinced that nothing on this Earth could have lifted my spirits higher than this new comedy from Ben Stiller. The film left me hoarse and gleefully exhausted from laughter. Forget "Pineapple Express," "Step Brothers" or "The Rocker." If you want to change the course of your day, see "Tropic Thunder."
Four actors on location in a jungle, shoot an expensive Vietnam movie. They are spoiled childish prima donnas who can't discern a real life experience from the movies they star in.
The leader of the group is Tug Speedman, played by Ben Stiller. Speedman was once a huge action movie star, but his career took a nose-dive when he tried to go for Oscar gold by playing the mentally handicapped farm boy "Simple Jack."
Robert Downey Jr. plays an Australian method actor who undergoes plastic surgery to portray the African American soldier Osiris. Jack Black plays drug addled Jeff Portnoy, an overweight actor best known for his roles in movies like "The Fatties." Brandon T. Jackson plays rapper-turned -actor Alpa Chino who has his own energy drink called "Booty Juice." Jay Baruchel, who normally plays screw-ups in films like last year's "Knocked Up," is the straight man to this odd bunch of characters.
The movie's director, Damien Cockburn, played by Steve Coogan, is fed up. He needs real emotion from these actors. So, he drops the actors in the jungle and with help from his gung-ho pyrotechnics supervisor Danny McBride, attempts to recreate a war-like experience. But he didn't know that he was putting them right smack dab in the middle of a territory run by armed-to-the-teeth heroin smugglers.
That cemented my entire day. Nothing could change the course of it. Tuesday was going to suck. Just as I was getting ready to go out the door for class, a friend called and said there was a screening for "Tropic Thunder." Decisions, decisions. Go to class and soak in the ever-present mundanity of life while stressing about impending bankruptcy or ditch school and see a comedy. It was a no-brainer.
After watching the film, I am convinced that nothing on this Earth could have lifted my spirits higher than this new comedy from Ben Stiller. The film left me hoarse and gleefully exhausted from laughter. Forget "Pineapple Express," "Step Brothers" or "The Rocker." If you want to change the course of your day, see "Tropic Thunder."
Four actors on location in a jungle, shoot an expensive Vietnam movie. They are spoiled childish prima donnas who can't discern a real life experience from the movies they star in.
The leader of the group is Tug Speedman, played by Ben Stiller. Speedman was once a huge action movie star, but his career took a nose-dive when he tried to go for Oscar gold by playing the mentally handicapped farm boy "Simple Jack."
Robert Downey Jr. plays an Australian method actor who undergoes plastic surgery to portray the African American soldier Osiris. Jack Black plays drug addled Jeff Portnoy, an overweight actor best known for his roles in movies like "The Fatties." Brandon T. Jackson plays rapper-turned -actor Alpa Chino who has his own energy drink called "Booty Juice." Jay Baruchel, who normally plays screw-ups in films like last year's "Knocked Up," is the straight man to this odd bunch of characters.
The movie's director, Damien Cockburn, played by Steve Coogan, is fed up. He needs real emotion from these actors. So, he drops the actors in the jungle and with help from his gung-ho pyrotechnics supervisor Danny McBride, attempts to recreate a war-like experience. But he didn't know that he was putting them right smack dab in the middle of a territory run by armed-to-the-teeth heroin smugglers.