MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Tropic Thunder.  Rated R

Directed by Ben Stiller.  Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr..

Photo © Dreamworks Pictures
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

For many years actor-writer-director Ben Stiller has produced short-form comedy films for his TV show “The Ben Stiller Show”, as well as for the MTV Movie Awards.  Most of his work sends up Hollywood and pokes fun at those in the entertainment industry.  Few people do this kind of thing better than Stiller, but there are times I wonder just how much I need to care about seeing the vulgarity of the excessive and egocentric show biz scene cut down to size.  It’s been done before and it’s been done better in films such as “All About Eve”, “The Sweet Smell of Success”, “The Stunt Man” and “The Player”.  Tropic Thunder is a comedy about the filming of a Vietnam War picture starring four self-absorbed celebrities and how they are challenged when they find themselves stumbling off the location set and into the hands of real drug traffickers.  A lot of the interplay between the main characters is amusing (and crude), but the “action” part of this action-comedy is half-baked and clunky (this is also the problem with Pineapple Express, another summer film of this year).  And when the drug lord is a 12-year-old boy, it is obvious that even this manufactured plot device is contrived and phony.  What you will remember about this film is the amazing comedic performance of Robert Downey Jr., who plays Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor who has his skin pigmentation altered to play the role of a black officer.  Downey’s character embodies all of the macho qualities of the black action stars of the 70s and 80s and he owns every scene.  The talents of Jack Black are squandered in the part of a heroin-addicted comedy star in the throes of withdrawal.  Everyone else in the cast turns in good performances, in a film that will provide amusement the first time around.  When I saw this film a second time, I was surprised to see just how much of the movie seemed to miss the mark.  But there are big laughs – and the great performance from Downey Jr. – for those willing to bungle in the jungle.

Pitchfork Rating: One halo. (There are a couple of inspired performances and some good satirical laughs mixed in with this so-so action comedy.) Three pitchfork. . (For consistent swearing and crude language, drug use, and extreme violence for humorous purposes.)

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