Monday, 13 October 2008

Guerillas in their midst

Ben Stiller brings out the big guns for his latest comedy blockbuster

Ben Stiller monkeys around at the Tropic Thunder premiere

Ben Stiller’s latest ludicrous comedy offering Tropic Thunder has once again produced the sort of gurgle-inducing, snort-stifling and stomach-clenching audience reaction that we’ve come to expect from silly Stiller over the years.

The film’s about a group of self-important movie stars who set out to shoot the most expensive war film ever made. Stiller plays action superstar Tugg Speedman along with a star-studded cast, including Robert Downey Jr as cocky method-acting Australian Kirk Lazarus (rather reminiscent of Russell Crowe), who has his skin darkened to play a black sergeant, Jack Black as spoilt, overweight, drug-addicted fart film hero Jeff Portnoy, Brandon T Jackson as rapper and ‘Booty Sweat’ soft drink endorser Alpa Chino and Jay Baruchel as geeky young character actor Kevin Sandusky.

Steve Coogan couldn’t get any wetter as the film’s frustrated British director Damien Cockburn, while Nick Nolte is utterly convincing as grizzly hook-handed Vietnam vet and the story’s author John ‘Four-Leaf’ Tayback and Matthew McConaughey gets the sporto yuppy agent down pat. Even kooky Tom Cruise produces more than his fair share of chuckles as he manages to claw back some – quite a bit actually, though I hate to say it – of his acting credibility as hairy foul-mouthed – and apparently Harvey-Weinstein-inspired – studio boss Les Grossman. I’m guessing Tom had to pay someone a lot of money to let him have that role, but it certainly paid off – catch his booty-shakin’ gigolo dance at the end! Classic.

As the story continues and the stars’ prima-donna antics push the film way behind schedule and even further over budget, Cockburn’s only choice – to save his bacon from a nostril-flaring, knuckle-cracking and mouth-frothing Grossman – is to shoot the movie guerilla-style by dropping the actors in the middle of the jungle to fend for themselves…

Needless to say, disaster ensues. But, as this is a Ben Stiller film, it occurs in the most hair-brained and ridiculous ways possible. Sure, there are parts that are fairly predictable, but it doesn’t make the gags any less funny.

My only criticisms are that Jack Black is his usual goofy cross-eyed ‘I think I’m really funny, but nobody else does’ persona, riding on the dumb glutton character and barely holding his own against the far superior comic stars on screen beside him.

Robert Downey Jr can’t do an Aussie accent to save himself, but no one who isn’t Australian has ever mastered it – and he certainly got a lot closer than Meryl Streep in Evil Angels (aka A Cry In The Dark) – so I’m willing to overlook it for comedy’s sake. Downey Jr is, without a doubt, the real star of the show, even outshining Stiller himself and carrying every scene with his perfect Mr T-esque swagger and James Brown grunt.

So ladies, why not forego Brideshead Revisited and take your man along to Tropic Thunder instead? It’s guaranteed to heat up your night… well, it does have some impressive pyrotechnics displays anyway.