Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller, 2008)

[LQ]

oof, did anyone else find this excrutiatingly bad? I guess not too many, judging from its score on rottentomatoes. We finally walked out about an hour in, when the quote "scene stealer" movie exec started dancing white-guy style to some booty shakin' hiphop. (Which, if I see one more time, I will gouge my eyes out) It started well enough, but somewhere down the line it soured. For all the hype I didn't find RD-J all that funny-yeah, I guess he played a good "black guy" but spitting jive, no matter who's spitting it, just doesn't make for hilarious dialogue in my opinion. I'm disappointed because I was really looking forward to it, as Zoolander is one of my favorite comedies. But it appears that everyone else loved it, judging from the spittle that flew freely from the people behind us guffawing, almost indencently so. Sigh. There are few things more annoying than being in the theatre with a comedy that everyone else finds hilarious. You just end up hating it more.
Who knows, that probably colored my opinion. But I still think it was thuddingly unfunny.

[mfunk9786]

I fell asleep during this one. The crowd, on opening night at 10:40, consisted of about 10 people in one of those huge Regal auditoriums. Aside from the two people behind us, no one was really laughing in the theater at all. Matthew McConaguwhatever was fucking exhausting as Stiller's agent. This is the kind of movie that has a running joke about an agent playing a different sport on his Wii every time the movie cuts away to him. The satire is weak, and Cruise was simply grating.

[hot_locket]

oof, did anyone else find this excrutiatingly bad? I guess not too many, judging from its score on rottentomatoes. We finally walked out about an hour in, when the quote "scene stealer" movie exec started dancing white-guy style to some booty shakin' hiphop. (Which, if I see one more time, I will gouge my eyes out) It started well enough, but somewhere down the line it soured. For all the hype I didn't find RD-J all that funny-yeah, I guess he played a good "black guy" but spitting jive, no matter who's spitting it, just doesn't make for hilarious dialogue in my opinion. I'm disappointed because I was really looking forward to it, as Zoolander is one of my favorite comedies. But it appears that everyone else loved it, judging from the spittle that flew freely from the people behind us guffawing, almost indencently so. Sigh. There are few things more annoying than being in the theatre with a comedy that everyone else finds hilarious. You just end up hating it more.
Who knows, that probably colored my opinion. But I still think it was thuddingly unfunny.

Agree wholeheartedly, though I did stick it out to the end, and you can rest assured that it only got worse. Tom Cruise, who I honestly was hoping to like, judging by all the hype, was the subject of some of the most nauseating stunt casting in the history of kitschy filmmaking. It's like with every close up on him being wacky (basically yelling "fuck" louder and louder each time), Ben Stiller is screaming in your face "GET IT? This is TOM CRUISE, he's not supposed to be so cRaZy!!!!!"

The whole film was a colossal goatfuck of epic unfunniness, incompetent writing (god the writing), directing, and editing galore. If anyone came out this mess not completely humiliated, though, it was Jay Baruchel, who made good with his surprising amount of screen time.

[rs98762001]

... spitting jive, no matter who's spitting it, just doesn't make for hilarious dialogue in my opinion.

The one and only time this ever worked was 27 years ago in Airplane!

[LQ]

... spitting jive, no matter who's spitting it, just doesn't make for hilarious dialogue in my opinion.

The one and only time this ever worked was 27 years ago in Airplane!

Haha but of course. And never, ever again.

[moviscop]

I brought some friends to see this movie with me because I thought it would add to the humor aspect. They fell asleep and I found myself dozing off while waiting for something funny.

Loads of gimmicky cameos and horrible dialog.

Waste of Money!

[margot]

I liked it. It's probably a love it or hate it type of film. I liked that it's more of a satire on hollywood than just a satire on war movies which is what you get from the trailers, I especially liked that they went with the R rating for it.

As mentioned previously in this thread, yes Ben Stiller is playing his stock character, but that character is still funny. Damien Cockburn was killed way too quickly I felt, I wanted to see more of him (I know this is the type of movie that they shot tons of footage for and the dvd is going to be massive and awesome. I hope they do a semi feature length version of Rain of Madness) Tom Cruise is hilarious playing Ari Gold.

I brought some friends to see this movie with me because I thought it would add to the humor aspect. They fell asleep and I found myself dozing off while waiting for something funny.

Loads of gimmicky cameos and horrible dialog.

Waste of Money!

Hey why do I get the feeling you only posted this because everyone else in this thread hated the movie?

[nsps]

I liked it too—mainly for RDJ and Baruchel. I was in stitches during RDJ's speech about going "full retard."

Damien Cockburn was killed way too quickly I felt, I wanted to see more of him

Yeah, but it was worth it for his reaction right before he dies.

[margot]

Baruchel has some of the best expressions ever. His face after kirk lazarus says that thing about being a little boy is hilarious.

[AlexHansen]

Any movie with human-on-panda violence is a-okay in my book. "I killed the thing I love the most."

[lacritfan]

Well, I didn't love it or hate it as much as everyone else. If you haven't seen it yet go if it's a bargain matinee or rent it.
Tom Cruise's role was already hyped up so it wasn't any big deal to me. I thought he was gonna channel Harvey Weinstein, etc. but he was basically an older Frank TJ Mackey from Magnolia.
Robert Downey Jr was definitely good but they could've done a lot more with his character. That fact that he was able to "disappear" into this character had as much to do with the makeup as his acting. The early pre-surgery scenes where he was basically channeling Russell Crowe were just as good to me. Actually, I think it might've been better if they ditched the whole concept and he did the movie as Russell Crowe.
To me Jack Black was the funniest because despite the fact that this is supposed to be a Hollywood satire with all its' inside references, it's basically a low brow comedy so my favorite parts were

Spoiler

1-the Saving Private Ryan scene where Ben has temporarily gone deaf and surveys the "carnage" and Jack Black is screaming "My ass!"
2-when Jack Black is told the encampment is making heroin and his eyes light up
3-the I will blow you scene

[Antoine Doinel]

The full, thirty minute Rain Of Madness mockumentary is available for free download on iTunes.

[dx23]

The full, thirty minute Rain Of Madness mockumentary is available for free download on iTunes.

sorry for being a little out of topic, but does anyone know where I can find a list of free stuff on iTunes, like the mockumentary above and the Watchmen episode? I don't want to miss out on cool stuff like these.

[Antoine Doinel]

Saw this tonight, and I have to side with naysayers on this one. Aside from the opening fake trailers, and first twenty or so minutes, Tropic Thunder really sags. Instead of being a skewering of celebrity and Hollywood, it's a bunch of one note caricatures crammed into a pretty unfunny action film. I was hoping the film would have more of the tone of the Rain Of Madness material which I have a feeling will be far superior to the film (I've downloaded it, but haven't had a chance to watch it).

The Tom Cruise gag/cameo/character loses steam fast and he's in the film far too long. It's not even that's not funny, he's just given way to much screen time would he would've bee more effective and hilarious with less. I'm not really sure why Matthew McConaughey is in the film. His character is a throwaway, painfully underdeveloped and unfunny. For me the highlights were Downey (obviously) and Jay Baruchel who really takes advantage in later stages of the film to shine. Ben Stiller seems oddly uncertain here trying to play a variant of Zoolander but never hitting the right tone. The guy playing Alpa Chino (ha ha) could've been written out of the script and the film would've have been any less for it. By the same token, the film could've used way more Danny McBride.

Anyway, it's a single gag film that never creates the wall to wall laughs it needs to. The few times the film actually swings for the fences (the retard jokes/play and

Spoiler

Stiller launching the baby off the bridge)

were the moments I enjoyed most, and it was that kind of irreverence that the film needed way more of.

[margot]

The full, thirty minute Rain Of Madness mockumentary is available for free download on iTunes.

Oh my god yes. Thank you.

[Antoine Doinel]

Cruise wants to bring his character back for the, uh, internet.

[Erikht]

I liked it. After seeing God knows how many War Movies as a part of OH's doctoral thesis, it was good to see a movie that really knew how to take the different genre markers and using them, abusing them, and then spit 'em out again. Not quite Blazing Saddles, but almost.