TROPIC THUNDER [2008] review
November 25, 2008 · Print This Article
I do not often see comedies like TROPIC THUNDER, but I do like Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. and despite the first hand negative reviews I heard of this movie, I still went to the theater to see it on its opening weekend here in Tokyo. I almost didn’t make it through the first ten minutes of hardcore gore shots, but after that the movie settled down and I found myself enjoying the random ride the characters chewing the scenery were taking me on.
I guess I was surprised this was an R-rated movie, so I was totally unprepared for the gore and didn’t understand how they could even show it. Then as the characters used nearly the full gamut of English swear words, I knew this was definitely an R-rated film. Japan has no real ratings system, at least none that I am aware of, and in ads for the movie I never see any indication of age restrictions, though I believe there are some and I just don’t know where to look.
The scenes with a fat-suited Tom Cruise were pretty much all, if not entirely gold, damn close. His dancing was epic as well. The best line of the movie though was by Robert Downey Jr.’s character about what young boys do when they are nervous. Only me and one other dude LOL-ed in the theater at that joke. I guess Japanese people didn’t get it. I was cracking up for a good thirty seconds myself.
Jack Black was fairly reserved in this movie, and other than the unwatchable fake trailer for his fat-gaseous movie, he was actually pretty funny without being too absurd.
I recommend keeping your eyes closed for the first ten gory minutes, then sitting back and enjoying the manic jungle scenes that follow and just go with all the scenery chewing.
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Sorry, I knew that you don’t like comedies.
I just wanted laugh without thinking.
Actually you enjoyed more than me?
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Jason Collin Reply:
November 25th, 2008 at 11:25 PM
Actually, I like comedies…just not comedies that have gas in them! But I like going to see movies you recommend too!
Hmm, maybe I did laugh more than you?? Especially about the joke about young boys when they are nervous!!
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Yeah I agree with almost everything you say here. Gore was just sick, especially as I had no idea it was coming, and I happened to be eating dinner at the same time. Glad that wasn’t a recurring theme throughout the movie.
Tom Cruise made the movie for me. He should act like a bastard more in other movies, he’s got a natural talent for it. Liked the totally new way they used him. Him being an action star never flew with me, he just isn’t badass looking enough.
Robert Downey also had a huge role in saving this movie. Damn but that guy can act! Pretty much everything he said was funny in an unforced way.
Which I can’t say at all for Jack Black, Just went way over the top for me with his heroin addiction thing. I was like enough already! It’s not funny. Unlike you though, I thought his Fart preview at the beginning was the funniest thing he did. How could you, not enjoy that??
Ben Stiller was just himself as usual. Didn’t bring anything to the table at all. Maybe I laughed a bit at the Simple Jack preview near the beginning, but they kept bringing it up again and again, which made it annoying.
So Aya enjoyed it then?
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Jason Collin Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Yeah, Aya liked it, I think!
About Jack Black, I just don’t like the “F” word. You know I never use it myself. Plus, it was just gratuitous. I prefer guerilla gas.
Robert Downey Jr. pretty much always rules on screen.
Tom Cruise should make a series of digital shorts featuring his movie producer character! I thought it was awesome when he was explaining things to the Pecker and reached for the stereo remote and started showing the Pecker how to be a playa. Loved how Cruise said “playa” even!
Loved the fat, hairy forearm prosthetics he wore as well.
I think if there wasn’t that uncalled for gore in the opening, I might have liked the movie much more. It took awhile to recover from that, even though I averted my eyes from the screen for most of it.
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Hold the phone. You don’t use “the ‘f’ word?” Do you have small children?
As for the gore, is your distaste for it mitigated at all by the absolute knowledge that it’s all fake?
(You might want to leave your “American Badass” t-shirt in Japan….)
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Jason Collin Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:10 AM
I was referring to another “f word” Dy. THE F-word, I use constantly. Instead of the “f-word” Jack Black uses often, I prefer the much more civilized term “gas.”
In multiple dreams last night dogs approached me and let me pet them.
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I’m pretty much the polar opposite of you on this movie- the only funny bit for me was the opening 10 minutes, during which I laughed a lot and thought to myself- awesome, this is gonna rock. Then they went into the jungle and the rest of the movie was the same stuff from the first 10 minutes, but watered down and spread out over a pathetically dumb plot.
Jack Black was awful in this not because Jack Black was awful, but because the script he had to read was just not funny. At all. Likewise with all the other characters. Almost unbelievable to me that the people who made the beginning of the movie (yes, and the end with Tom dancing) also made the whole middle bit. It was tight, ridiculous, humor-dense, then just baggy and weak and I didn’t laugh once til Tom Cruise appeared again. Weird.
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Jason Collin Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I thought the middle had some story and progression, first the arguments about where to go, then planning out the rescue mission, then carrying out that mission. Granted, it was a loose story structure.
Tome Cruise really needs to play that character again though!
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