Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black
Ben Stiller is not as dumb as he looks. When the jug-eared comedian decided to step behind the camera for the first time in seven years to direct Tropic Thunder he wisely called up some heavyweight reinforcements. The welcome presence of Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr ensures Stiller’s gun-toting comedy is one of the most riotously funny films of the year.
The first few minutes are worth the price of admission alone as the main characters are introduced through a series of fake trailers. Tugg Speedman (Stiller) is an over-the-hill action star who needs a hit. Jeff Portnoy (Black) is a drug-fuelled comedian famous for movies about farting. And Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr), in a dig at Russell Crowe, is an Aussie so serious about his craft he has his skin darkened to play a black man. They are all working on Tropic Thunder, a Vietnam War film beset by problems.
With ball-busting producer Len Grossman (Tom Cruise) tearing his hair out, director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) chucks the actors in the middle of the jungle with the hope that it will give the movie a gritty realism and get things back on track. Only the stars are left in territory occupied by a heroin-producing gang and have to start acting like real soldiers. For the most part the cast, and Downey Jr in particular, do a bang-up job taking the piss out of petulant and overly earnest thespians. The joke eventually wears thin and the film fizzles out, but this is still the best thing Stiller has done since Zoolander. PIERRE DE VILLIERS