I wouldn't watch it again! (Tropic Thunder (DVD))

Member Name: AJ26

Product:	Tropic Thunder (DVD)
Date:	12/03/09 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some funny moments

Disadvantages: Not to my taste, gross in places, rather stupid

I had heard a little about Tropic Thunder but hadn't really read any reviews of it when I watched the film. So I knew the basic plot but didn't know if it was any good or not.

It starts with a several fake trailers of movies. Now I began watching the DVD while finishing off on the computer so was only half paying attention and I had to stop and ask my husband what was going on and he pointed out that they weren't trailers for real films! The fake trailers show the characters of this movie. I guess at the cinema this would have been quite good as people would have at first assumed that they were real (or would if you are as gullible as me!).

There isn't much of a plot to this movie but the basic idea is that a director played by Steve Coogan is trying to make a Vietnam war movie. However things aren't going well and he feels he needs to get a bit more action and atmosphere. So he takes all the actors and leaves them in the middle of a jungle where they are told to act out the scenes and they will be filmed by secret cameras. Things immediately begin to go wrong but the actors do not realise that some of the things they come into contact with including some very dangerous armed drug gangs are not actually part of the film. Can they make it out of the jungle?

The main actors in the film include Ben Stiller who also helped write the script who plays a former action hero Tugg Speedman whose popularity has started to fade after starring in some real flops of films. There is Jack Black whose character Jeff Portnoy is a drug addict and is going cold turkey in the jungle. There is also Robert Downey Junior whose character Kirk Lazarus has committed to the role so much that he bizarrely has gone through some sort of surgical procedure to make him black just to play the character! There is also an appearance from Tom Cruise who steps out of his normal roles to play a bald headed, fat and rather horrible studio manager. I had no idea it was him until my husband told me, the transformation was quite impressive! He has a rather strange dancing scene at the end of the film!

This film could be considered to be a funny Hollywood satire making fun of actors and big budget war films. Personally I wasn't terrible sold on it. Admittedly there were some funny bits here and there but there were also plenty parts that were just downright stupid and also rather disgusting and didn't really appeal to my sense of humour. There are lots of gross parts with blood spurting everywhere and the scene with Ben Stiller and a decapitated head was really disgusting and in my mind unnecessary but some may find it rather funny. I guess it's a case of each to their own. It is also not very politically correct with racial issues and with the dealing of disability in relation to a film that Stillers character had starred in.

There are however some funny moments the scene towards the end of the film with Stiller and the young boy did have me laughing out loud but overall I didn't really like the film. I watched some of the special features too and the same humour and gore carried on there. I am glad I only rented this film and didn't buy it. Its not one that either my husband or I enjoyed and I wouldn't be watching it again.

Currently £9.98 on Amazon (but I wouldn't waste your money!)
Rated - 15

Summary: A film about actors making a film thats not very good!