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PUTNAM NEWS
Billy Summers: Controversial 'Tropic Thunder' starts off great, lacks in the middle
In this image released by Paramount Pictures, Ben Stiller, left, and Robert Downey Jr. are shown in a scene from, "Tropic Thunder."
Purchase this photoThe latest piece of "theatre gone terribly wrong" to arrive in Putnam County is a silly little movie called "Tropic Thunder."
It's not well written, not well acted, not well directed -- but actually, not very bad. It has quite a few funny moments and is a great satire of what we think that movies are about.
But talk about biting the hand that feeds you: Director and co-writer Ben Stiller takes aim at everything and everybody involved in Hollywood. No one is immune.
It's like all of those ex-athletes (mostly baseball and football players) in the late decades of the 20th Century who wrote scathing exposes about their sports. The main difference here is that those guys were no longer involved in that which they were criticizing or satirizing.
And after all is said and done about "Tropic Thunder," Stiller still has to work in the town whose favorite threat is "You'll never work in this town again!"
Anywhere but Hollywood, I'd say that takes a lot of guts. But the movie capital of the world has always let it be known that when you're making films with the intention of turning a profit, then all bets are off. Anyone or anything that gets harmed along the way is collateral damage.
As for the film itself, the plot is the making of a war movie that just isn't getting it done. The director (played by Steve Coogan) is in danger of being canned and decides to put the five-man cast into a real jungle, which, it turns out, is populated by an Iron Triangle opium cartel.
They have to fight their way out, not knowing (in the early stages) that it's real instead of Memorex.
The cast is truly a cast of characters. From Stiller as superstar Tugg Speedman, the leader of the group, a man whose last few sequels have been rotten and his one attempt at a true acting has fallen flat.
Then there is the much-touted performance of serious thespian, Kirk Lazarus, who plays an African-American after a procedure to make himself black.
Also starring is Jack Black as the whacked out/drugged out comedian, Jeff Portney, a Chris Farley satire who will go over the top to get any laugh.
Two of the better performances are a very limited Matthew McConaughey as Speedman's agent and Danny McBride as the special effects guy. Both add a lot to the picture without getting enough credit.
A barely recognizable Tom Cruise steals the show (in a very creepy way) as movie mogul Les Grossman (aptly named, as he portrays a very grotesque male). His portrayal may or may not be him thumbing his nose at Sumner Redstone, the Paramount Pictures head who split with Cruise after 14-years because of Cruise's negative publicity.
Cruise's portrayal of a movie big shot ranks up there with John Marley's Jack Woltz in "The Godfather" and Harvey Corman's Hedley Lamarr in "Blazing Saddles."
If you really want to see the creepiest scene of the year, make sure you sit through the final credits and watch "the dance."
All in all, the movie is better than most we've seen this summer. It starts off great, lags in the middle, then picks up at the end -- a pleasant diversion from the totally moronic comedy of other flicks this summer.
Go see "Tropic Thunder" if you like movies about war, Hollywood, or wild and crazy characters.
An added trivia bonus, the title "Tropic Thunder" may be a spoof of the 25th Infantry Division, known as the "Tropic Lightning" division. It was positioned in the center of most of the action in Vietnam during that war.
Billy Summers is a freelance photographer who also reviews films for the Putnam Herald. He can be reached at summers855@verizon.net.
