The forecast is good for “Tropic Thunder” to storm the box office. It’s a fairly droll, self-deprecating skewering of spoiled movie stars that happens to feature a whole passel of ’em. All in one flick, you get notorious ego trippers and/or bad boys Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte and Ben Stiller alongside Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise in cheeky secondary supporting roles.
This surreal roster alone ought to sell tickets, even if the insider setting may limit its mass appeal and the material is more studied/clever than laugh-out-loud funny.
In a spoof about Hollywood hubris, directed, co-written, co-produced and headlining Mr. Stiller, the controlling multitasker casts himself as a hack actor who used to be a megastar in blockbusters. (Ironic? Please, insert your own anti-Stiller dig here.)
His Tugg Speedman is a dim bulb of a diva action star whose sequels are now attracting fewer fans.
So, he’s trying to remake himself as a real artist by signing onto an earnest Vietnam War drama. On location in-country, he vies for credibility against an Aussie method actor, the multi-Oscar-winning Kirk Lazarus (Downey).
Think Russell Crowe, only goofier.
Kirk takes his craft so seriously, he’s undergone a “pigment transplant” so he can play an “authentic” African-American character in the film within the film. This allows the “Tropic Thunder” script (co-written by Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen with Stiller) to send up racial stereotyping as well as thespian pretensions. It does both sufficiently.
Tugg’s shallow agent (McConaughey) obsesses over getting him a TiVo box; the production’s hairy, ruthless financier (a nearly unrecognizable Cruise) only cares about the bottom line. Meanwhile, the motley cast, which also includes a flatulent, drug-addicted clown (Black) and a nerdy newcomer (Kevin Sandusky), ends up stranded in the jungle. After a plan to achieve some gritty realism backfires, they find themselves in the clutches of a dangerous gang of heroin traffickers.
Can pampered celebrities only pretend to be heroic macho men or can they actually become them when the chips are down?
With Nolte satirizing a crusty old Vietnam vet and “Pineapple Express” Danny McBride zany as ever as the crew’s pyromaniac, “Tropic Thunder” has some inspired moments. Tinseltown and its prima donnas definitely deserve the ridicule.
But the potency of that one joke, eventually, peters out.
(Quick facts: 3 out of 5 stars; Stars: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black; Director: Ben Stiller; Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material; Running Time: 106 minutes)
