War Games

I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Tropic Thunder.

Directed and co-written (with actor Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen) and co-starring Ben Stiller (pulling triple duty for the first time since 2001’s Zoolander), the action comedy has been on my radar for months – ever since co-star Robert Downey Jr. gave summer a solid start with Iron Man.

Tropic Thunder would bookend Downey’s summer. The question was would it be a hit and keep him in our and Hollywood’s good graces…or would it flop? (It is opening in August, which has undergone a re-invention at the movie theater in recent years, but still – it’s the dog days.)

The actor plays Kirk Lazarus, an Aussie Method actor so committed to his craft he undergoes an experimental extreme makeover to play an African-American in the movie within the movie (i.e., he’s in blackface for most of the movie).

This is just one of the outrageously risky lengths to which Tropic Thunder dares to go for a laugh.

The movie surely raised eyebrows within the African-American community because of this, although, from what Stiller, Downey, and Jack Black told Entertainment Weekly, at least one African-American (Brandon T. Jackson, who plays Alpa Chino, a rapper-cum-actor/energy drink hawker) made sure no lines were crossed.

Disability advocacy groups, however, picketed the movie’s premiere this week, to protest the movie’s repeated use of the word “retard.” You can’t please everyone, and this is an R-rated comedy, and in its context everything works. But I can see their point. It’s a sensitive matter.

I digress, though.

The point is the movie – about a group of self-absorbed actors led by Stiller’s Tugg Speedman, a dimming (and dim-witted) action star, that sets out to make the most expensive Vietnam War film ever but finds itself in the middle of a real-life hot zone – is hilarious.

Tropic Thunder takes potshots at Hollywood in so many Oh-no-they-di’n’t ways it’s quite incredible.

There’s Stiller channeling, say, a Tom Cruise, Downey evoking Russell Crowe, and Black, as Jeff Portnoy, the star of the flatulent Fatties franchise, poking fun at Eddie Murphy – IMHO.

And the cameos…the cameos are just terrific, especially…ha! …Tom Cruise’s, who’s unrecognizable as a bald, fat, crass, cussing, merciless studio head. Add to them the too-funny faux trailers that play before the movie and you have a crazy meta-fest that’s pretty cool.

Tropic Thunder – as its tagline says: Get some. You’ll love it, and perhaps you’ll hate yourself a little for it. But you’ll laugh, and that’s a cure-all.

My Rating ****

Photo: DreamWorks Pictures.