CinePhillyist Reviews... Tropic Thunder

Just in case there was any doubt left, yes, Robert Downey is in blackface for almost the entirety of Tropic Thunder. And no, I didn't feel guilty about laughing at him. That's because Downey, who plays the Russel Crowe-like Kirk Lazarus, is laughing at himself. It's a ridiculous premise: a multi-time Oscar winner, Lazarus undergoes controversial (you don't say!) skin pigmentation-altering surgery to play the African-American sergeant of the American platoon featured in the Vietnam War-era film-within-a-film, also dubbed Tropic Thunder, that he is filming alongside action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), hip-hop artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and up-and-comer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel). So "Method" is his acting that Lazarus refuses to drop character, vacillating between truly stubborn and genuinely confused, often putting him at odds with the African-American Chino, who is upset that "they had one good part in there for a black man, and they gave it to "Crocodile Dundee!" (Lazarus's rebuttal is one of the best lines in the movie, thanks in no small part to Downey's delivery.)

But there's more to the movie than the controversy surrounding Downey's role—a controversy that I contest has probably been started by people who haven't seen the film, which acknowledges the utter offensiveness and ridiculousness of having a white actor play a black one in this day and age before more or less concluding that it simply shouldn't be done. Let's not forget the plot, which surrounds a motley group of big-money actors shooting a movie about the Vietnam War on location. Frustrated with the progress of the movie, their director (Steve Coogan) conspires with the writer of the book that inspired the movie (played, rather brilliantly, by Nick Nolte) and the film's pyrotechnics ace (Danny McBride) to shoot the movie "guerilla-style"—out in the real jungles of Vietnam, with hidden cameras hanging from the trees and a very definite element of surprise.

It should be no surprise that things don't go at all as expected, and eventually, the movie that the actors thought they were making about war against the Viet Cong turns into a very real battle against a group of Vietnamese drug makers. It's an interesting and funny scenario, but unfortunately, one that fails almost as much as it succeeds. The film had the potential to be a truly great action comedy, complete with impressive guest spots (Matthew McConaughey and a nearly-unrecognizable Tom Cruise in possibly his best role in five years), but it had one too many moments of devolution into the slapstick (unsurprisingly, mostly at the hands of Black and Stiller), instead of staying in the more elevated world of scripted, situation-based (though not at all "sitcom"y) comedy. A little bit of the ridiculous is welcome—Cruise and actor Mike Hoagland doing a celebratory dance as they realize their potential earnings from the disastrous film; Stiller desperately yelling to the crew that's not there to "cut" his torture scene; the outstanding faux-trailers at the beginning of the movie—but when it goes too far over the top (including one scene featuring Stiller and a panda, and another that sees a nearly-naked Black playing heroin withdrawal for laughs), it takes away from what might have been: an intelligent action comedy that earns laughs, rather than working for them. Sure, I laughed my ass off, but I was also often left wondering why.

Should you go see Tropic Thunder? Probably. It's 107 minutes of often-mindless summer entertainment featuring a surprisingly good performance by Robert Downey Jr. and some great material written by Stiller, along with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen. It's definitely the most controversial film of the summer, so it'll be good for water cooler conversation. It's sitting at a solid 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. But if you're going to see the most explosive comedy ever made, be warned: you'll probably find Tropic Thunder is less bang, more whimper.

Image via Internet Movie Poster Awards