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*** Official TROPIC THUNDER Review Thread (1 Viewer)

Chuck Mayer

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Fricking hysterical. There are a million things I'd like to talk about, but most of them would be spoiler material based on the commercials. If you can skip reviews and see this, I recommend it. There are a lot of little treats in store for you.

It's a very well structured, very well shot (cinematography by John Toll!) comedy. Stiller balances the cast very effectively, and they all contribute to the humor in their own way. The most nuanced humor is Downey, Jr, but I think that almost goes without saying. Black is surprisingly funny as well. The best DIALOGUE is Danny McBride's. I'll be quoting him forever. I'd love to do more shout-outs, but I'll wait for a Discussion Thread.

Top shelf comedy, well worth your time. If you can stomach some language
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And a little gore.

9/10,
Chuck
 

Robert Crawford

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This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Tropic Thunder". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.



Crawdaddy


 

Patrick Sun

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I am not too high on the film. For some reason, even though it's a send-up on the Hollywood process (both in behind-the-scenes production, and handling of actor's egos and insecurities), I never really bought into its tone, so it never settled into an enjoyable viewing groove for me. Sure, we get to see stars curse like sailors, spitting out lines far too polished for the situations at hand, but it's too over the top for its own good.

Robert Downey Jr. is the highpoint of the film, but I wasn't enamored by his performance, even if it was many-faceted, it just felt wasted in this particular film. I think I'm over-loaded on Danny McBride, who I really don't find all that funny, but somehow he's been able to convince many that he's worth putting on the silver screen. There are a couple of non-advertised roles (marketing-wise) that get a bit more screen time than I had expected. The Simple Jack stuff by Ben Stiller was cringe-inducing. Jack Black goes very far for some shallow comedic bits (much of it was eye-rolling for me). The rest of the cast play it almost too straight (Jay Baruchel) or not funny enough (Brandon Jackson).

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.
 

Jason Sweet

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I was pretty disappointed as well. Zoolander is my favorite comedy of all time, and war movies are my favorite genre so I figured this would be a slam dunk. It started off promising, but once they were left in the jungle, it fell off for me. There were some good jokes, but there was way too much time between the good ones, not the rapid fire pace I expected. Robert Downey was awesome, and the fake trailers were great, but nowhere near as good as I had hoped for overall.
 

TravisR

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I'm not a big fan of Ben Stiller but I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I thought Robert Downey, Jr. stole the movie and was the best thing in it. Jack Black (who somehow made heroin addiction funny) had some real good moments too. I didn't even know that Jay Baruchel was in the movie so it was a nice surprise to see him in a fairly large role.

And you could see that Tom Cruise was having fun playing the studio exec. I'm sure his portrayal is based on real people and very accurate.
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Tino

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Hilarious from beginning to end.

:star: :star: :star: 1/2
 

Todd H

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I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face. Funniest movie I have seen in a long time.

4/4 stars
 

Shad R

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I loved it. Ben Stiller is firing on all cylinders...writing, acting and directing this one. He hits the comedic mark almost every time in this one. Great cast, great jokes, great satire. Although I liked Robert Downy Jr, Jack Black and the "hollywood producer" I thought Ben Stiller had the funniest bits. Like being attacked in the jungle. Or the portrayal of a character he hoped would bag him an Oscar. Overall I loved it. I really did.
 

Edwin-S

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I saw this film a few days ago. I have mixed feelings about this one. There were plenty of funny sequences, but sometimes I felt like they were trying too hard. Some of the humour just felt forced to me. I also found the "Simple Jack" thread in this film tiresome. It starts out funny, but how many times can you hear the word "retard" before it gets old? Answer: not much.

They were lucky that Robert Downey Jr. was as good as he was in this film, otherwise the film wouldn't have been nearly as good as it was. Surprisingly, the other actor that impressed me in this film was the kid playing the narco boss. He could have easily looked completely cartoonish and out of place, but he actually succeeds at creating a reasonable facsimile of a tiny terror.

There was some fun spotting references to the various films that influenced TROPIC THUNDER. All in all, a decent comedy but not nearly as funny as some of the reviews here led me to believe. I'd give this one a B-.
 

WillG

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Saw it yesterday. Not bad, but I'm not sure I thought it was all that great either. I actually surprised it has done so well seeing as how a lot of the humor is pretty "inside". In retrospect, I could have easilly have waited for DVD on this one.

I can't believe no one here has yet mentioned


Assuming I'm interpreting this correctly, I thought it was kind of clever how his reveal was handled. The way he was in shadow at first made the back of my mind think "Ok, come on out Will Ferrell" but it turned out to be just some unknown kid. Was Stiller toying with the audience here?
 

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