Tropic Thunder (2008)

Tropic Thunder (2008)

6/10

Starring

Ben Stiller

Jack Black

Robert Downey Jr.

Steve Coogan

Jay Baruchel

Directed by Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller did a wonder in 2008 with the wonderful comedy, Tropic Thunder. The movie is set in a world of actors where three top actors are shooting a Vietnam War movie, when everything just took a wrong turn. Ben Stiller wrote and directed the movie, he also starred in it along with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

The movie received many accolades with Robert Downey Jr, getting a lot of praise for his rule and his make up was just amazing. You need to see his makeup, if not for anything you need to see how they made him up to look like a black man.

The movie plot is about a Vietnam War veteran memoir called Tropic Thunder. The memoir is being made into a movie. The problem with the shooting is the cast, we have a fading actor named Tudd (Ben Stiller), Five-time Academy Award actor Kirk (Robert Downey Jr.) and a drug addict comedian Jeff (Jack Black), taking the leads. Along with them on the set is an upcoming actor and a rapper. Their different personalities clashed on set, making it hard for the inexperienced director to be able to control what is going on set. This also caused a lot of millions to be lost and the movie to be behind schedule by months.

When the director gets a call from the studio executive that he better get control of the set or the movie will be cancelled, he decided to seek advice from the memoir writer. He advised that the director drops the actors in the middle of the jungle with hidden cameras set to follow them and special effects set up across the path they are to follow. They are also to act along with the scenes.

Things started to go crazy when the director mistakenly drops them in the middle of the Golden Triangle the home of a heroin producing gang. It gets worse when the director is killed when he steps on an old land mine. Kirk believes something is wrong and Tugg believe it is all part of the set and they should just play along. Things get worse when Tugg gets kidnapped by the gang who runs the jungle and then it comes to light that the memoir writer is not telling all the story right.

Now the remainder of the actors must find a way to save Tugg.

The movie was not much of a financial success but it is a marvelous movie to see and enjoy when you get the time. It stands for me as one of Robert Downey Jr.’s best performances on screen.