Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder review written by Dominic Rizzi

Written by: Ben Stiller, Etan Cohen & Justin Theroux

Directed by: Ben Stiller

Rating: 🏆 Most Excellent

Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. When their frustrated director (Steve Coogan) drops them in the middle of a jungle, they are forced to rely on their acting skills to survive the real action and danger when they find themselves going up against a real drug cartel. The only problem? They still think they’re making the movie.

This is still my favorite comedy ever. No other comedic movie has ever made me laugh harder, been more rewatchable, appealed more to my very specific sense of humor, has better lines, better performances or this tight of a script. That's the unsung truth of comedies, most of the time the story takes a backseat to the jokes. I find this is why a lot of them don't age well and aren't actually that funny. This movie already would have been great enough as just a regular war movie satire, but the oh-so-specific skewering of Hollywood with jokes that really only the most die hard of movie lovers and industry insiders would get are what really sends it over the top. 

I know that sounds like a contradiction to my previous point, but a) the movie's still hilarious enough without the insider Hollywood knowledge, and b) those jokes have aged so amazingly in today's day and age that it's actually turned the movie from a silly comedy into something bigger and greater. It still amazes me that Robert Downey Jr. got nominated for his role in Tropic Thunder, and that this is his only other Oscar nomination besides Chaplin.

People still criticize the use of blackface, but the thing they seem to always miss is that the movie itself goes out of its way to criticize it. Brandon T. Jackson’s “Alpa Chino” character is constantly calling out Downey Jr.'s “Kirk Lazarus” over the fact that an actual black man lost the part to an Australian. Wild stuff. I also think Tom Cruise doesn't get enough credit as this is the best he's ever been in any movie in my opinion. In closing, Ben Stiller's a better director than actor.