By Robert Scucci
| Published
Tropic Thunder is one of those movies that people constantly say “could never be made today,” which is a total crock because 2008 isn’t that long ago, and its humor still holds up. An over-the-top movie within a movie with some of the funniest actors playing some of the worst actors, there’s so much going on in Tropic Thunder that you can’t help but admire the audacity and just enjoy it for what it is: a complete farce. As offensive as Tropic Thunder’s humor may be, the reason it works so well is because of how pathetic its principal characters are, making them the butt of the joke.
A Movie Disguised As Another Movie
Taking the piss out of Hollywood war movies, Tropic Thunder is about as excessive as it gets. When Damien Cockburn’s (Steve Coogan) epic war movie – also named Tropic Thunder – goes epically off the rails because he can’t control his actors, he’s encouraged by Sergeant John “Four Leaf” Tayback (Nick Nolte), the author of the memoir the film’s based on, to drop the cast and crew in the middle of the jungle to film the movie “guerilla style.”
What already seems like a terrible idea is only further exacerbated by the film’s unjustifiably arrogant lead actor, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), who desperately needs a win after a series of box office flops in order to save his career. Joining him in the production are Jack Black’s Jeff Portnoy, a heroin addict typically known for his fart-based humor in family comedies, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Kirk Lazaras, a method actor who takes his craft so seriously that he never breaks character, even if it means walking around in blackface throughout the entire production. Rounding out the cast of soldiers is Jay Baruchel’s Keven Sandusky, a naive young actor who just so happens to be the only person who read the script and source material ahead of shooting the film.
Things go exactly how you’d expect in Tropic Thunder when the actors are dropped in hostile territory run by the Flaming Dragon gang, thinking that every encounter they have with the heroin-producing locals is actually a part of the movie.
Not A Good Look For The Studio
Meanwhile, Studio executive Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) demands updates as the production goes off the rails, while Tugg Speedman’s Agent, Rick Peck (Matthew McConaughey), does everything he can to get him access to TiVo, as stipulated in Speedman’s contract.
Desperately trying to get the production of Tropic Thunder under control in Tropic Thunder, Les Grossman finds himself at odds with the Flaming Dragons, who have kidnapped Tugg for a hefty ransom. Les has a change of heart when he realizes that if the lead actor on the project gets killed, then he can get back the money he invested in the failed project in the form of a life insurance payout.
Primary Characters Are The Butt Of the Joke
Tropic Thunder, as offensive as it may be, works so well because its primary characters are the butt of the joke. While Robert Downey Jr. was criticized for wearing blackface, it wasn’t to insult people of color, but to dunk on method acting by showing the lengths Kirk Lazarus was willing to go to get lost in a role. The same can be said for Tugg Speedman’s controversial portrayal of the mentally handicapped Simple Jack, which is meant to be poorly received within Tropic Thunder’s fiction because it’s one of the actor’s lowest points in his career for being so cavalier in his portrayal of disabled people.
Similar to shows like Married … with Children, Tropic Thunder holds up because all of its offensive humor is rooted in its characters who are unnecessarily arrogant in their delivery despite the fact that they’re all pretty pathetic when you get to know them. They’re meant to be loathsome people, and they’re acting exactly how you’d expect them to act.
As of this writing, you can stream Tropic Thunder on Tubi.
