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Tropic Thunder: Riders on the Storm of Absurdity

One of these things is not like the other, err..well, it is, but it’s not. (hint: one of them is British)

When the whole world is ranting and raving over the dark, brooding charisma of a vigilante crime fighter, where could we possibly turn to finally end the majestic run of the bat? Well, look no further than the most politically incorrect big-budget comedy in years. I guess five weeks of the gloom and doom of Batman finally did get us wondering, “Why so serious?”. Tropic Thunder rolled through the digital clouds this weekend and into theaters nationwide. It barely cleared the opening weekend take of recent R-rated comedic kin, Pineapple Express, but since Tropic Thunder was made for a ton more money people are wandering around claiming it was a letdown. Look, it took the #1 spot away from The Dark Knight, which had held it for five weeks, and claimed the spot for itself. No matter what amount of money it took in, this was still a success in its own right.

But let’s not focus on money, since it is the root of all evil (but I’ve been trained to handle it, so feel free to rid yourself of any and all unnecessary evil and send your spare money to me). The real success story for this film is the writing, the acting and the sheer brilliance of stupidity skipping and frolicking its way through the jungle. Jumping off the launching point with the fake trailers created for the fake actors in the movie, you already know you are in for something different, something that pushes the envelope of political and social commentary and satire. Tropic Thunder takes unabashed shots at Hollywood, not only for its reputation for prima-donna actors and bumbling directors, but also at its own tendency to turn any poignant social commentary into cannon fodder for the Oscar season. Critics want to brand the movie as insensitive to any number of groups, but what they refuse to see is the lambasting of Hollywood and its own culture as the root of the satire.

Intelligent writing will get your foot in the door, but it’s the actors who are going to have to walk through it. Performances from left to right were all above par and some were down right sensational. Robert Downey Jr. got a helping hand from the instant buzz created the moment people heard he was going to play his character in blackface, but once again the satire of the film keeps it from coming off as incredibly racist. Also lending a hand is Brandon T. Jackson, playing his rapper/actor crossover character Alpa Chino, who comically tries his hardest to correct the historic stereotypes Downey uses to embody his African American roots. Dropped into the lap of a less dedicated actor, the blackface would have completely failed and indeed come off as racist, but Downey confidently walks through the film totally unashamed, which allows the audience to feel unashamed at laughing at him. Ben Stiller, who also took the directing helm for this wartime parody, equally dove into the deep end of the pool with his action hero’s level of total obliviousness to the world around him. Feeling a little like the reverse of the situation in Hot Fuzz, where one man was sane and the entire town was mentally inept, Stiller provides a good deal of the less subtle humor. The only negative twitch I had here was the suspension of disbelief is stretched incredibly thin with Stiller. I could buy the totally out-of-touch actor persona, but once dropped in the legit war zone, it’s a little tough to buy Stiller continuing to live in his action film dream world. Jack Black comes through in the end of the film with his physical comedy king character, but he felt wildly underused for most of the film. Surprisingly, driving the plot and the story along was Jay Baruchel, who was the only mentally stable person in the entire film and he turned in a great performance.

Peeking around the corner of the frame, the cameos in the film are almost overwhelming. Steve Coogan, who should have had a much bigger role, was relegated to mere minutes of screen time, yet he made the most of them. Matthew McConaughey helps paint Hollywood agents in their bleakest light to date, while Bill Hader appears under the veil of the lowly studio-head assistant. Danny McBride, who is having the year of his life right now, steals scenes left and right as the pyrotechnics expert alongside Nick Nolte as the grizzled true life persona of Ben Stiller’s lead role. Saving the most notable cameo for last, Tom Cruise makes a triumphant return to the big screen as an overweight, unbelievably hairy, booty smackin’, cuss tossing Hollywood Studio exec. The hidden genius in this role is every moment he is talking smack about over-pampered actors and how they need to be treated, you know he’s poking fun at himself. Word on the street is Tom recently dropped out of his next action/spy thriller in turn for another comedy after hearing the positive buzz about his Tropic turn. If his career makes a dramatic upturn in the coming months, Tom honestly owes Ben Stiller a crisp million dollar check.

Topping off the whole experience is the great cinematography from John Toll and a wonderfully worked soundtrack, which brings the audience back to the time of epic war movies, but equally reminds us we are watching a send up of that very time period. I can’t say this is going to take in tons of money since the humor might be missed by people not familiar with the inner workings and insanity of the entertainment industry, but I hope there is enough kicks to the balls and fart jokes to keep the rest of the world happy.

Recommendation: It’s worth a look see. Save a couple bucks with the matinée ticket if you can, but check it out in the theater. The jungle, the explosions, the ridiculous trailers all work better in that environment.

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"Spiderwick Chronicles" fails to wrap me in its web

I can’t stop reading the Warren Commission Report. This is entrancing!

We have been inundated recently by fantasy movies for children all due to one little boy and his magic wand and another little man and his ring. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the multi-billion franchise blockbuster of Harry Potter made every movie studio want to jump on the fantasy bandwagon, which comes complete with a wise-cracking imaginary creature at the helm and a menacing arch enemy biting at your heels. There are even more films to add to this list, but let me get to the task at hand, talking about this new little boy and his own recent brush with the supernatural. Once again, this is an adaptation of a popular series of children’s books, but this film has a very tidy and complete ending, so I walked out not feeling a franchise was in its future. Maybe for once the studios felt that one was enough, or more likely they were just waiting to see how the audience would react to it. Since this review is coming out a whole week after its release, you might already know by now that it is not the blockbuster the studio was hoping for. Let’s try and figure out why…

The movie stars Freddie Highmore (greatest work to date: Finding Neverland), Mary Louise Parker (greatest work to date: according to people who have watched it, Weeds), David Strathairn (greatest work to date: Sneakers), a cameo by Nick Nolte (greatest work to date: The Prince of Tides -or- his mugshot) and not to be forgotten, even more Freddie Highmore. Yes indeed, it’s double the childhood innocence because Freddie plays the twin brothers, Jared and Simon Grace. I fully admit being utterly confused in the first five minutes of the movie because I wasn’t sure which one was him until they were actually standing side by side on screen together, then I put one and one together, to make one. The roles did stretch Freddie more than his previous films because he got to play outside that safety zone that we have pigeon holed him into as the wide-eyed all-heart yearning-for-total-joy little boy. In Spiderwick he plays two extremes, the totally passive and introverted Simon and the anger-ridden rebel Jared. I think this is where people will finally start to see him growing up and spreading those artistic wings, maybe not to the best of results, but at least he’s going for it, which is a commendable step. The rest of the cast play their parts well enough, but no one steals the show here. The cameos of Nolte and Andrew McCarthy (greatest work to date: Less Than Zero -or- Mannequin) as the shifting human form of the arch-enemy, the ogre Mulgarath, was amusing, but the idea that a shape-changer would become Nick Nolte in order to ease a child into trusting him is beyond laughable. There also were a couple of notable voices for the fully animated characters done by Seth Rogan (greatest work to date: Superbad) and Martin Short (greatest work to date: Three Amigos).

The story itself has all the standard elements of children’s fantasy fare: little boy stumbles across great power, evil baddie wants great power, little boy must grow up and outwit the great evil to save everyone. Somehow even with all the right points, this film just misses the beat. The only real emotional punch the movie has is towards the end between the character of Jared and his mom, played by Parker. There was a lot of nice work done in that moment and if the rest of the movie had been as charged with excitement or wonder, this would be a wholly different review. The other disappointing thing I found was that this all surrounds the power of a book that catalogs all the creatures in this mystical world just beyond our eyes, but so little of it is actually ever introduced in the film. I wanted more creatures, more magic and certainly more enemies, which was made up of mainly the ogre and his goblin minions.

So there you have it. This might be one case where the old adage holds true: Read the book. (can’t say for sure, since I haven’t yet, but maybe one day, when I’m old enough)

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