Tropic Thunder Movie Review

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/

Tropic Thunder is, well, funny. No two ways about it. Jack Black plays a heroin addict, Tom Cruise a balding movie mogul, Robert Downey, Jr. plays a black man (yes, you read that right) and Ben Stiller is a movie star whose career has seen better days. They all meet up to make a movie about Viet Nam based on the horrific story of an old veteran, Nick Nolte. The only thing to keep in mind during the movie is that nothing is what it seems to be.

The movie starts out with previews of other movies that are completely fictitious and extremely hilarious. In them, you get to meet some of the players of the film Tropic Thunder. It's genius, really. Then they briefly explain the premise of the movie you are about to watch, and even that is funny.

Basically, an Army veteran tells an unbelievable story of his time in Viet Nam via a book he had published. The movie industry got wind of it and decided it'd be a great movie, and so the cast described above (and a few others) begin filming on location, with Nolte present for fact checking and what have you. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and everyone pays the price for it.

The plot goes from making a movie to being in a real war situation in a hurry. Only Ben Stiller still believes he's still acting and that everything is part of the film while his comrades turn tail in the other direction, trying to make their way back to where they were before. Oh, and trying to stay alive. Hilarity ensues.

The movie is well worth watching if you like a good, cheap laugh and enjoy zany, unrealistic situations on the TV. The off-beat comedy is definitely original in this one, and everyone is at their best. For what it's worth, Robert Downey plays a black man really, really well. And Tom Cruise is all but unrecognizable in his role. Throughout the movie I kept forgetting who they really were. That's effective film-making, folks.