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36.
Tropic Thunder: 2008 (R) -8
USA / Dreamworks Pictures
83% (CF)
2008 was a damn good year for me. Not only did I graduate college, I enrolled in grad school, and it gave me some of my favorite movies of all time. Regrettably though, I did not see this in the theater. I first saw this when it came out on DVD. About 10 minutes into the film I thought this was one of the funniest movies ever made, and started kicking myself for not seeing this on the big screen.
Now I love movies, and this is a movie about making a movie. In addition it is making a movie similar in tone to an old Vietnam War movie like Apocalypse Now or Platoon (which are referenced quite frequently). The movie within the movie also has Apocalypse Now levels of issues going on, and that leads to the big comedic payoff of having 5 pampered actors wandering through South East Asia alone without any link to the outside. The comedy stems from that premise but is also greatly aided by the comedic ensemble. Robert Downy Jr. as Kirk Lazarus is hilarious and very un PC in the Sgt Osiris get up, Jack Black is funny as hell as a fat “Chris Farley-esque” druggie, Jay Baruchel plays the smart nerdy one, and finally there is Brandon T Jackson who might actually play my favorite character of the film Alpa Chino. Alpa is the commercially prioritized and sometimes annoying hip hop artist. Doing the film to promote his energy drink and candy bar he argues a lot with Kirk, and he has one hell of a character twist at the end of the movie! This dude needs to be in more movies! Also Ben Stiller is actually pretty funny in this role which is thankfully far removed from some of his other work. Add in Tom Cruise in heavy prosthetics, plus Nick Nolte and Danny McBride and you have one of the best comedic casts I have ever seen. And the fact that they are essentially spoofing the movie making process and Apocalypse Now is pretty f**ken brilliant! Now I do prefer the Director’s Cut to the theatrical cut. The only thing I wished they kept from the theatrical cut was Run through the Jungle by Creedence in one of the scenes. This is simply a really funny movie with an excellent cast which also sports one of my favorite DVD commentaries. True to his word, Kirk does not drop character until the DVD commentary was over.
Tropic Thunder: 2008 (R) -8
USA / Dreamworks Pictures
83% (CF)
2008 was a damn good year for me. Not only did I graduate college, I enrolled in grad school, and it gave me some of my favorite movies of all time. Regrettably though, I did not see this in the theater. I first saw this when it came out on DVD. About 10 minutes into the film I thought this was one of the funniest movies ever made, and started kicking myself for not seeing this on the big screen.
Now I love movies, and this is a movie about making a movie. In addition it is making a movie similar in tone to an old Vietnam War movie like Apocalypse Now or Platoon (which are referenced quite frequently). The movie within the movie also has Apocalypse Now levels of issues going on, and that leads to the big comedic payoff of having 5 pampered actors wandering through South East Asia alone without any link to the outside. The comedy stems from that premise but is also greatly aided by the comedic ensemble. Robert Downy Jr. as Kirk Lazarus is hilarious and very un PC in the Sgt Osiris get up, Jack Black is funny as hell as a fat “Chris Farley-esque” druggie, Jay Baruchel plays the smart nerdy one, and finally there is Brandon T Jackson who might actually play my favorite character of the film Alpa Chino. Alpa is the commercially prioritized and sometimes annoying hip hop artist. Doing the film to promote his energy drink and candy bar he argues a lot with Kirk, and he has one hell of a character twist at the end of the movie! This dude needs to be in more movies! Also Ben Stiller is actually pretty funny in this role which is thankfully far removed from some of his other work. Add in Tom Cruise in heavy prosthetics, plus Nick Nolte and Danny McBride and you have one of the best comedic casts I have ever seen. And the fact that they are essentially spoofing the movie making process and Apocalypse Now is pretty f**ken brilliant! Now I do prefer the Director’s Cut to the theatrical cut. The only thing I wished they kept from the theatrical cut was Run through the Jungle by Creedence in one of the scenes. This is simply a really funny movie with an excellent cast which also sports one of my favorite DVD commentaries. True to his word, Kirk does not drop character until the DVD commentary was over.