Tropic Thunder — R

The story
Fading action-movie star Tug Speedman (Ben Stiller) is in Vietnam filming "Tropic Thunder," based on the memoirs of Vietnam vet John "Four Leaf" Tayback (Nick Nolte). First-time British director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) has lost control of Speedman and his co-stars, five-time Oscar winning Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), star of wildly popular flatulence comedies. The movie's in big trouble. After five days of shooting, it's a month behind schedule. Studio CEO Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) threatens director Cockburn, "Take control of your actors or I will shut you down." Desperate, Cockburn turns his actors lose in the jungle to improvise the script.
Will Cockburn's cockamamie strategy save his movie? How dim is action-hero Speedman? Who can free the cast from Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo) and his Vietnamese drug cartel? If non-stop crude language and violence are OK with you, see laugh-out-loud "Tropic Thunder" for answers.
Actors
Robert Downey Jr. is splendidly funny as Australian actor's actor Kirk Lazarus. So deep is he into his role as a black American soldier, Lazarus can't get out. "I know who I am," he says, "I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude." Ben Stiller - who co-wrote the script and directs - is dim bulb Tug Speedman, whose last picture "Simple Jack" critics called the worst movie ever made. Speedman's career is in big trouble. Jack Black is fat-suit actor Jeff Portnoy. His career needs a jump-start, too, but he's stoned all the time, so it's a challenge. Downey, Stiller and Black are lots of fun.
The rest of the cast is equally funny. Danny McBride (catch him now in "Pineapple Express") is Cody, the movie's explosion guy. When things go badly wrong he says, "After this, I'm doing catering." Nick Nolte is over the top as author/technical adviser Four Leaf Tayback. Steve Coogan, Brandon T. Jackson and Jay Baruchel are director Cockburn and actors Alpa Chino (say it aloud) and Kevin Sandusky. Only Kevin's read the book and script. Watch for Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise in Hollywood cameos. Cruise is a hoot.
Other comments
"Tropic Thunder" is an R-rated, coarse, in-your-face, politically incorrect comedy, a send-up of Hollywood war movies. Its satire targets - among others - ego-inflated actors, incompetent directors and over-bearing producers. Stiller, Justin Theroux and Ethan Cohen wrote the profane, funny script. Jokes are often on-target, sometimes gross, but when they work, you'll say - as someone in the audience did when I saw the movie - "That's great!" The movie deserves its R for pervasive language, violence, sex and drugs. 107 minutes. Don't take the kids.
Final words
An R-rated comedy,
"Tropic Thunder" clicks -
Satire and send-up
Of Hollywood war flicks.