Tropic (quiet) Thunder
Posted on | August 25, 2008 |
I saw Tropic Thunder today. Needed a break from the world for a while and went to a late afternoon show. Robert Downey was brilliant as always. The guy is just so damn fun to watch. The Tom Cruise stuff started out pretty weak but got better and better. A few good cameos here and there. But overall, I’m sad to report, this movie is pretty lousy. Similar to The Dark Knight in a way actually. Good performances from pretty much everyone, but overall, it just didn’t work for me. Part satire of the movie business/actors/Hollywood in general, and part, well part just plain stupid.
It took me a while of watching his career from afar to understand that Jack Black is actually incredibly talented and not simply annoying. School of Rock might have been the film that made me a believer, although he was fantastic in High Fidelity as well. But he is still pretty hit and miss. Miss. Ben Stiller. When, exactly, did Ben Stiller become so ripped with the abs of steel and his own personal gun show on his arms? And more importantly, why? That’s not even close to his casting, although I guess it did work for Dodge Ball. Some actors transform their bodies over the course of their careers, or for a single part, and it works fine for them. (See Michael Chiklis for a body makeover that worked and gave him an entirely new career as the baddest cop on tv.) But for Stiller, the huge pecs and arms just don’t work for me. It’s actually a little disturbing.
I will say there are definitely some laugh way out loud moments here and there in Tropic Thunder. Downey’s explanation of why an actor should “never go full retard” is pretty priceless, even though it has drawn the ire of certain groups who think the term is offensive. (Of course it’s offensive, that was the whole point.) But there’s an awful lot of awful to wade through to get to those highlights. Nick Nolte is pretty much wasted as the long suffering veteran whose book about his time in The Shit and escape from a POW camp is the basis for the “film” the “actors” are making before they get lost in the jungle and think they are still filming a movie. I’m not surprised the film is doing such great numbers at the box office, it’s been promoted more than a little bit by the studio. Which is actually too bad. I would have loved to have seen that movie not knowing that Robert Downey was playing an African American in it. I wouldn’t have known it was him until the first flashback reveal 10 or 15 minutes in and I would have loved that discovery. And there’s the problem with Hollywood. The great surprises in this movie are all in the previews. The best lines are part of the lexicon before the movie even comes out. I’ve said this for 15 years, previews ruin movies.
Apparently I’ve now gotten sidetracked from Tropic Thunder to the travesty that is the movie preview business. Example: When Little Miss Sunshine came out on dvd, some asshole thought it would be good business to put the family dance scene in the tv commercial advertising the dvd release. Why? Right there, the scene that the entire movie builds to, the scene which comes pretty much out of nowhere, the scene that should bring a smile to anyone’s face when it happens, becomes the scene you wait the whole movie for when you rent the dvd. And the payoff is completely ruined. Not to mention how many people are going to be utterly disappointed when they rent this great little indie film they’ve heard so many good things about after seeing a preview that includes the family push starting the bus and doing the crazy dance at the end. They’ll be disappointed because instead of getting a wacky family road movie, they find themselves watching a sweet and heartfelt story about a real family struggling with real issues that is both touching, sweet, funny, and sad. Not to mention incredibly well written, acted, and directed.
Why? Why do I need previews? I don’t. They suck. And so does Tropic Thunder.
Comments
2 Responses to “Tropic (quiet) Thunder”
August 26th, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
tell us how you really feel…
August 27th, 2008 @ 11:20 am
you don’t want that. Nobody wants that.