| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Yukon |
Posted - 08/28/2008 : 03:31:37
Just saw it today and love it! 5/5 from me.
It's a great film for people who love the movie industry, lots of jokes about spoiled actors and crazy studio executives.
Everyone talks about Tom Cruise but I thought Nick Nolte stole the picture playing the crazy Vietnam vet (although some would argue he's not 'acting' crazy). |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Airbolt |
Posted - 09/26/2008 : 11:55:35
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
Given Ethan Coen and Justin Theroux contributed to the script I expected a bit more wit and actual satire - a disappointment in that respect. Stiller was much funnier and had a much better script to play with in Dodgeball. Colour me disappointed.
No No NO! NOT ETHAN COEN but Etan Cohen [from tv's Beavis and Butthead] -- makes more sense now, yeah?! And it's Theroux's first co-screenplay.
LOL - I'm looking forward to more soundalikes appearing in credits! Who could forget Avid Mamet, Akira Goldman or Joe Estrogen?
Having said that i bet Etan Cohen tries it on if he gets pulled over " Yes, Officer, I'm THAT Ethan Coen!" |
| demonic |
Posted - 09/26/2008 : 00:49:40
Aha. Makes much more sense. Ethan Coen is hear-by excused. Thanks BB. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 23:02:12
quote:
Originally posted by demonic
Given Ethan Coen and Justin Theroux contributed to the script I expected a bit more wit and actual satire - a disappointment in that respect. Stiller was much funnier and had a much better script to play with in Dodgeball. Colour me disappointed.
No No NO! NOT ETHAN COEN but Etan Cohen [from tv's Beavis and Butthead] -- makes more sense now, yeah?! And it's Theroux's first co-screenplay.
|
| demonic |
Posted - 09/25/2008 : 22:11:19
I'm with GHCool - a great idea, executed without much style. I thought it hit the mark about 20% of the time and the rest it really wasn't that funny; it tried so hard that much of it felt desperate. Loved the first 10 or 20 minutes or so - the trailers, the Platoon rip offs in particular - and then it lost its way. I'm more and more convinced Jack Black is a one-trick pony. He's actually very boring on camera; all that bug-eyed hysteria schtick is tiring. Downey Jr is genuinely excellent making his co-stars look amateurish, but the joke ran out fairly quickly for me too. Cruise's performance would have benefitted from being more of a cameo in my opinion (Tobey Maguire is way up in my estimation now, by example) but then I'm one of the minority that rates Cruise anyway - he doesn't need to suprise me with a solid comic performance. Given Ethan Coen and Justin Theroux contributed to the script I expected a bit more wit and actual satire - a disappointment in that respect. Stiller was much funnier and had a much better script to play with in Dodgeball. Colour me disappointed. |
| GHcool |
Posted - 09/22/2008 : 05:06:44
Slightly unrelated, but I just got back from seeing Hamlet 2, which was funnier and more relevent than anything in Tropic Thunder, and was made for a sliver of Tropic Thunder's budget. Take that! |
| Salopian |
Posted - 09/22/2008 : 04:23:05
Things learnt from Tropic Thunder:
(1) Tom Cruise really can act. I had no idea it was him till I saw the credits.
(2) Some people really miss the point if they think the Simple Jack or blacking-up stuff is offensive. ('Jack'. 'Black'. Jack Black. There's a review there somewhere...) It's exactly the opposite of offensive.
(3) Hollywood film-makers are still quite racist about Asian people. Amongst other problems with the representation here, it's not ideal that the Vietnamese are presented as finding Simple Jack hilarious.
(4) Most importantly of all, of course, R.D.j. is damned hot as any colour or nationality. |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 09/18/2008 : 15:18:04
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
I'm Black and the Downey role (see, even his name lends comedic irony to the discussion) struck me as sublime. I agree with MBI: the joke was aimed at method actors, not Blacks or race-conscious observers.
"Booty Sweat": now that's offensive. 
This is a FUNNY film! Yeah, ditto - it's not about dudes playing dudes disguised as other dudes - or making tasteless ha-ha's at ethnic minorities or the mentally challenged. It is about the jungle that is Hollywood, the way the power chain is yanked from studio head to agent to actor. Sadly, as seen in a few posts above, audiences will conclude it's about method acting.
Well, that only reveals an ignorance. Certainly it's about the way Stanislavki's method of achieving truth whether on stage or screen has been diluted and bastardized as it passed to Strasberg and the many disciples who may or may not have understood it. So there's a generation of pretentious actors who think they're practicing some kind of method and are in the game for the glory of a statuette. And it's they who are being mocked by Stiller and Theroux.
Yeah, the film's rough and ready and TOO LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG.
As a comment on the movie biz it ain't no Player, but it is entertaining so long as you keep focused. The acting, btw, is loverly, even if the characters as written leave much to be desired.
Already mentioned, but you are in for a treat with Cruise and Nolte -and let's hear it for Brandon Soo Hoo as the child drug-lord.
|
| MguyX |
Posted - 09/11/2008 : 22:44:03
I'm Black and the Downey role (see, even his name lends comedic irony to the discussion) struck me as sublime. I agree with MBI: the joke was aimed at method actors, not Blacks or race-conscious observers.
"Booty Sweat": now that's offensive. |
| MisterBadIdea |
Posted - 09/11/2008 : 15:32:35
"I'm not sure if African Americans were offended by the role, but I wouldn't be surprised because the character is not making any satirical comment that relates to anything in reality. Its just a white guy acting like a black guy. Ha ha ha, right? Not really."
The joke is directed as the phoniness of method actors who like to believe that they really can tap into anyone's experiences. It's been a winning Oscar-baiting tactic for decades: playing retarded, playing gay, and let's throw in hot actress playing ugly too. That it's offensive is the joke. |
| GHcool |
Posted - 09/10/2008 : 05:38:59
I just got back from seeing it since I heard of how frickin' hilarious it is from the critics and friends and stuff. I'm gonna disagree with the majority and say that Tropic Thunder had a couple of chuckles, but was overall a rather dull comedy and a not very funny action film. I felt that the actors were mugging for the camera and the cheap shots at Hollywood were so far removed from reality that most of the satire fell flat.
Consider the Robert Downey Jr character. Downey did as good a job as anyone could in that role, but the role itself was not funny past the first second we see him. It was basically the same joke told throughout the film and it was only slightly amusing the first time. I'm not sure if African Americans were offended by the role, but I wouldn't be surprised because the character is not making any satirical comment that relates to anything in reality. Its just a white guy acting like a black guy. Ha ha ha, right? Not really. The treatment of retarded people was also offensive, in my opinion, as was the treatment of Vietnamese people. |
| Joe Blevins |
Posted - 09/10/2008 : 03:38:43
My own $0.02:
(1) I liked the film quite a lot. It was sloppy as hell, but I had fun watching it.
(2) Cruise's performance was one of the highlights. To me, it showed how one of Cruise's strengths as an actor is his cold-blooded ruthlessness. I think this has to do with his eyes and his voice. There's a kind of detached, cynical, calculating quality to him that really comes across in villain roles.
(3) I felt that Simple Jack was a parody of Oscar-chasing actors, not a parody of the mentally retarded. Ben Stiller's Jack character was not in any way a realistic depection of a retarded person. It was a complete contrivance -- totally false and not based on anything from reality. To me, that was the point of the Jack scenes: to spoof rotten acting (and bad moviemaking in general). I was laughing at the shallowness, vanity, insensitivity and fakeness of Stiller's character, not at the mentally retarded.
I guess that's $0.03. |
| damalc |
Posted - 09/08/2008 : 17:24:41
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
And I loved seeing Cruise in a dark role, too.
he was like the grown up Joel Goodson.
and Yukon, you passed me in reviews a long time ago and i'm happy for you. but don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever. |
| Yukon |
Posted - 09/03/2008 : 12:41:14
quote:
Originally posted by MisterBadIdea
The protesters couldn't be more wrong -- they're so idiotically wrong that they shouldn't even be dignified with acknowledgment.
Sorry Dalmac, I agree with MisterBadIdea.
The Simple Jack joke isn't about laughing at people with mental disabilities, it's laughing at insensitive idiot actors who exploit people with mental disabilities to try to win Oscars.
Downey's line "The reason (you didn't win the Oscar) is you went full retard, you should have went half retard" was so insensative, I laughed my head off. |
| MguyX |
Posted - 09/03/2008 : 01:20:01
Gotta love that R.D.Jr.
And I loved seeing Cruise in a dark role, too. |
| Wheelz |
Posted - 09/02/2008 : 23:57:00
As a comedy, it's quite funny. I laughed a lot.
As satire, it's good but not great. I thought they missed some opportunities to push the envelope a bit more, and it could have used a darker ending as befits a great satire (read: Dr. Strangelove).
But a very enjoyable time at the movies for sure! |
