Thursday, August 14, 2008

Tropic Thunder: Alot of Thunder, Not Enough Laughter

So I did end up seeing Tropic Thunder last night with a few friends. And to start off, I will say that there are some pretty awful portrayals of mentally retarded people by Ben Stiller's character. It definitely pushed the envelope of what is appropriate for a mainstream Hollywood movie. However, once you get beyond the general shock of what is being portrayed and notice Stiller's ridiculous "Simple Jack" makeup, it was pretty hillarious. But that brings up what I thought the problem was with the movie itself. At 110 minutes it is a little longer than most movies, and I felt that the balance of comedy to action just wasn't in order. I would definitely agree that there are some very very funny parts, I was laughing alot, especially in the opening trailer for "Booty Sweat" and Bust a Nut Bars". I think that I laughed harder during that than the whole movie itself. But I would sum up my grievance with Tropic Thunder by saying that when I laughed I laughed hard, but when I wasn't laughing I was waiting for something funny to happen, and sometimes I felt I had to wait too long to laugh again. Props to the actors for bringing out the best in their characters, Robert Downey Jr. as Kirk Lazarus was hillarious and Ben Stiller and Jack Black were also standouts in their comedic performances. In all Tropic Thunder was good; not great, but good. A bit long winded and although the action was intense and the humor strong, as a theatrical diner I was expecting comedy with a dash of action, not the other way around.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How dorky is it that your mother leaves you your first comment. And the reason I am doing this is because despite the content of your info,whic I find humorous, I am constantly impressed by your gramatical abilities. English major you should be...and I love you

Anonymous said...

not too anonymous I guess, duh!