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movie review - Tropic Thunder

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I quite enjoyed this bizarre telling of a Vietnam war movie shoot in south-east Asia that swerves into an unintended collision with reality when the core cast is cut adrift in an area controlled by drug gangs. Bouncing back and forth between the on-site saga of the lost actors and then to the various scenes of the Hollywood 'machine', this movie details the convergent crises being faced by a dimwitted action hero, an overacting prima donna, a desperate agent, a more desperate supporting actor with a heroin addiction, the movie's phoney writer, the bumbling explosives expert, and the director who's in over his head.

It's a complex plot but one that works thanks to the even pacing, entertaining characters, and liberal dosing with amusing scenes. There's one scene, for instance, in which the action star has accidentally killed a panda. As a spokesman for panda preservation, he's distraught and incoherent when he calls his agent to say, "I've killed the one thing I love above all else." The agent's face drops. He closes his door and without missing a beat, hisses, "You've killed a prostitute."

Also, the ghastly dance sequence by an unusually self-effacing Tom Cruise is worth wading through the credits.

I understand that this was the directorial debut for Ben Stiller and I applaud.

Recommended.