Tropic Thunder Part 1 of 2

Tropic Thunder Part 1 of 2

Ben Stiller, who directed this movie, is having a lot of fun making Hollywood look awful in this story. The movie is funny and surprisingly entertaining on an action level too. Stiller needs to be commended for his impressive action scenes. The movie isn’t always laugh out loud, but the movie is consistently funny. And, some people might not get all the layers of humor that Stiller and his writing team have put in the script. There are a few pacing problems that keep this movie from being really great, but it is still one of the better comedies to come out this summer.

The basic summary of the story is that an over-budgeted Vietnam movie is in danger of being shut down because of its movie star cast. The cast is full of stars that don’t want to behave, led by Ben Stiller’s action star character Tugg Speedman.

The writer of the book, that movie within the movie is based on, suggests that the director take his actor out in the real wilderness and film it guerrilla style. Things go horrible wrong from that point on, and they run into real gun-carrying drug-makers out in the jungle.

The whole entire point of this movie is to parody actors and their strange way of looking at the world. Each character is loosely based on real actors or Studio Executives.

Tugg Speedman: The leading actor/action star. He’s based on Steven Seagal and a few other action stars. His career is in decline as an action star, and he’s looking for his next big break.

Jeff Portnoy: A raunchy comedian that makes fart joke movies. These fart movies have him starring as the all the main characters. He is also a drug user and drinker. Loosely, he’s based on Eddie Murphy and Chris Farley.

Alpa Chino: Rapper turned actor, pick anyone rapper turned actor. He has his own energy drinks, one of them being “Booty Sweat”.

Kirk Lazarus: The black older soldier, which is a double role for Downey Jr. because he also plays the method actor that turns himself black in order to play the part. His white character is a foul-mouthed version of Russell Crowe.

The main plot is simple and for this type of movie, it doesn’t need to be too complicated. The strengths live in the performances. Two unlikely actors really shine. They are Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey. Both of these guys steal the movie from Stiller and Robert Downey Jr.

Tom Cruise will surprise you…

End of part one

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So, you want me to dress up in a Iron suit for my next role?