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Tropic Thunder
This star studded comedy offers some huge laughs, but stumbles over its own political in correctness. You don't often see a film that combines an A-List cast like this one has and a story that is actually good. It provides a lot of laughs and is definitely worth the money to see it in theaters.
The cast in this film does a great job. Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise steal the show with there characters, both of which aren't very recognizable as them. Robert Downey Jr. shows good range playing multiple roles as the same character. He does a very good job of acting like an actor who is acting out several different characters. Tom Cruise's character is a very over the top character. It definitely has a lot to add to the humor, but at some points in time it was a little grating to me. Jack Black doesn't step to far out of his normal roles playing his character. It is still a decently fresh character with some good lines, but it isn't anything nearly as out there as Robert Downey Jr.'s character. Ben Stiller is probably my least favorite character in this film. He steps out of his typical character he does in all films at times in this film, but then he quickly drops back into the hot headed idiot that he always ends up as. There are some other good appearances in the film, I liked Danny McBride as a secondary character, like he was in Pineapple Express.
The humor in this film is solid. There were a lot of references to other war films which were great. I noticed several to the film Platoon. The combination of action and humor made the humor in the film much better. They also did a solid job adding in some sex jokes and other jokes. The one type of joke that didn't work out nearly as well were the jokes about race, mental capacity, and to a lesser extent drugs. Those jokes just became too stereotypical. They were often insulting to watch even if it wasn't the type of person that you were. They didn't miss on all the jokes like that, but they tried to do a lot of them, and they missed on more then they should have. However, this film did have some huge laughs to it.
Overall this was a very solid comedy. I don't think it quiet lives up to Pineapple Express, but it has a lot of good laughs, and some very good cameo roles to it. I'd definitely recommend seeing it if you have already seen Pineapple Express.
Overall Grade: B+
Story: B
Acting: B
Audio/Visual: B+
This star studded comedy offers some huge laughs, but stumbles over its own political in correctness. You don't often see a film that combines an A-List cast like this one has and a story that is actually good. It provides a lot of laughs and is definitely worth the money to see it in theaters.
The cast in this film does a great job. Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise steal the show with there characters, both of which aren't very recognizable as them. Robert Downey Jr. shows good range playing multiple roles as the same character. He does a very good job of acting like an actor who is acting out several different characters. Tom Cruise's character is a very over the top character. It definitely has a lot to add to the humor, but at some points in time it was a little grating to me. Jack Black doesn't step to far out of his normal roles playing his character. It is still a decently fresh character with some good lines, but it isn't anything nearly as out there as Robert Downey Jr.'s character. Ben Stiller is probably my least favorite character in this film. He steps out of his typical character he does in all films at times in this film, but then he quickly drops back into the hot headed idiot that he always ends up as. There are some other good appearances in the film, I liked Danny McBride as a secondary character, like he was in Pineapple Express.
The humor in this film is solid. There were a lot of references to other war films which were great. I noticed several to the film Platoon. The combination of action and humor made the humor in the film much better. They also did a solid job adding in some sex jokes and other jokes. The one type of joke that didn't work out nearly as well were the jokes about race, mental capacity, and to a lesser extent drugs. Those jokes just became too stereotypical. They were often insulting to watch even if it wasn't the type of person that you were. They didn't miss on all the jokes like that, but they tried to do a lot of them, and they missed on more then they should have. However, this film did have some huge laughs to it.
Overall this was a very solid comedy. I don't think it quiet lives up to Pineapple Express, but it has a lot of good laughs, and some very good cameo roles to it. I'd definitely recommend seeing it if you have already seen Pineapple Express.
Overall Grade: B+
Story: B
Acting: B
Audio/Visual: B+