Tropic Thunder by Paul Bullock

Having lampooned the absurdities of the fashion industry in Zoolander, Ben Stiller is back to take aim at touchy actors and self-serious war films in Tropic Thunder. Starring, directed and co-written by Stiller, it features he, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jnr as a group of prima donna thesps who get tangled up in a real-life war while shooting an Apocalypse Now-style Vietnam flick in the jungle. Released at the height of election fever, when celebrities are involving themselves in politics and debates on war, the film is rife with the potential for sharp satire. So why is Tropic Thunder so limp?

Most significant among the issues is the film‘s budget. One of the most expensive comedies ever made at a substantial $92million, it has enough special effects to make it look like a proper war film, never mind a parody of one, but good comedy rarely needs a big budget. Indeed, as Monty Python proved on Holy Grail, financial restraints can necessitate great comedic invention, and that‘s one thing Tropic Thunder lacks. Instead, we have helicopters swooshing past the screen, pyrotechnics exploding and a slew of Hollywood stars making cameo appearances; from Nick Nolte and Matthew McConaughey to Tobey Maguire and Tom Cruise.

This allows the film to take aim at one of its primary targets: the movie business. Appearing briefly in one of three fake trailers that introduce the three leads, Maguire stars as a gay priest who is in love with Downey Jnr - recalling the pair’s roles together in Wonder Boys. McConaughey, playing against his nice guy persona, is Stiller’s conniving agent, while Cruise is surprisingly self-deprecating as the hideous executive funding the movie. Predictable references to Apocalypse Now and Platoon epitomise the film‘s frequent laziness, while the glimpses into the Stiller‘s character‘s previous films, one of which is an Oscar baiting flick called Simple Jack, is only made worthwhile by Downey’s Jnr’s comments on portraying ’retards’ on screen.

The (frequent) use of that word, along with Downey Jnr‘s ‘blacking-up’ have attracted criticism for the film, but there‘s little here that will really offend. The Iron Man actor’s lampooning of an actor who takes himself, and ‘the method’, far too seriously is too overtly silly to be mistaken for racism, and even if there is any doubt, there’s a black character included to point out his idiocy and negate any offence. Elsewhere, Stiller, playing the uptight, Zoolander-esque lead, who harbours delusions of awards grandeur, is on too-familiar territory to truly spark, while Black as drug addict comedian Jeff Portnoy is given little more than his usual nutty schtick to perform. A disappointment all round, really.

The film ends with the sight of Cruise popping and locking his way through a rap song that runs during the credits. He does so while disguised in the bald head, hairy arms, sweaty face and chunky body that constitutes his character, the irony of a film that is supposedly satirising celebrity relying so heavily on that very thing to garner cheap laughs seemingly lost on the makers. It’s also likely to be lost on an audience who will gleefully lap up the film’s easy-going laughs and absurd set-ups. But the world is crying out for a film to puncture its growing pomposity, and Tropic Thunder is ultimately not sharp enough to even pierce the surface.