Tropical Humor

When Ben Stiller sits on the director’s chair, we’re going to get something a little more gutsy than your typical comedy. He’s going to go for something a little bit bigger, a little bit grander, and tons more ambitious. That’s always a welcome thing. Tropic Thunder has a bit more ambition than it can handle, but it’s still one of the funniest films to come out this year.

The film follows the exploits of a bunch of prima donna actors as they shoot a Vietnam era war movie. Tugg Speedman is a big name action star trying to raise his stock after a disastrous turn in a serious drama. Kirk Lazarus is a five time Oscar winner who goes to extreme lengths to portray his characters. Jeff Portnoy is a lowbrow comedian with a drug problem. Alpa Chino is a rapper who shills energy drinks. Because of their antics, the production is a month behind schedule just five days in shooting. Desperate and facing pressure from the studio, the director decides to just drop the cast in the jungle and shoot the film guerilla style. But things don’t go according to plan, and the actors are forced to fight their way out of drug cartel controlled territory.

There’s a lot of funny in this script, but it lacks a little focus. Tropic Thunder tries to do a lot of things in its attempt to lampoon the entire structure of Hollywood, poking fun at prestige films and “serious” actors and awards and adoptions and movie executives and action films and assistants and everything that makes the mad world of movies tick. All that, and it still tries to give us rounded characters, a full arc of stories and a fully functioning action movie in itself. That’s a lot to tackle for any production, and while this script comes amazingly close, it just falls short. It’s still laugh out loud funny, but there are parts where it’s obvious that we’re just being rushed through the scene to get the next big joke.

It’s a good thing, then, that the big jokes are actually really good. While the satire lacks focus, it makes up for it with sheer potency. There are lines in this movie that will be quoted and repeated and put up on blogs for years to come. There are moments in the film that just stick with you; that you’ll play back in your head on the ride home. Much of the film’s potency is owed to the spectacular cast. Ben Stiller can be pretty hit-and-miss, but he thrives in this kind of character: well-meaning dopes who rely on a truckload of false bravado and hang on to the fringes of sanity. His crazed look has always been one of Hollywood’s best, and when used well, it’s just instant laughs. Robert Downey Jr. steals the show playing Kirk Lazarus, an Australian method actor playing the role of an African-American sergeant in the movie. He stacks his role with so many levels of meta-acting that it’s hard to actually see him under all of it. Lazarus stands out as one of Downey’s most memorable characters, in a career already filled with great characters. Of the leads, Jack Black seems to have done the least, generating most of the easy laughs. Jay Baruchel is full of heart, and it would be great to see him in more things. Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise all take terribly memorable turns in this film as well.

It’s the people that really sell Tropic Thunder. There’s a fair amount of things in this film that just shouldn’t work, but the cast delivers it all with such gusto and perfect comedic timing that it’s almost hard to notice. And perhaps it’s a little self-indulgent, at times, a little too Hollywood insider-y. But all in all, it’s hard to think of a recent film with as many hearty laughs in it. And really, Downey Jr. is worth the price of admission alone.