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Tropic Thunder

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Tropic Thunder (2008)

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Reviews Counted:220

Fresh:180

Rotten:40

Average Rating:7/10

Consensus: With biting satire, plenty of subversive humor, and an unforgettable turn by Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder is a triumphant late Summer comedy.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material.

Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:Aug 13, 2008 Wide

Box Office: $110,416,702

Synopsis: When the box office champ Ben Stiller's comedic performances aren't a variation on a soft-spoken, put-upon everyman with an eventual fuse, he's usually playing a full-blown absurdist monster with... When the box office champ Ben Stiller's comedic performances aren't a variation on a soft-spoken, put-upon everyman with an eventual fuse, he's usually playing a full-blown absurdist monster with an apoplectic Napoleon complex. These bizarre creations usually adorn films in which the funnyman provides the supporting work (DODGEBALL, HEAVYWEIGHTS), but, whenever he's directing, he's free to build an entire filmic universe around his asinine, ludicrously funny, culture-skewering characters and premises. His ZOOLANDER (2001) bit at the entertainment industry with silly abandon, but Stiller has firmly set TROPIC THUNDER within the realm of sophisticated Hollywood satire. In it, a desperate director named Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) trying to make a Vietnam war movie drops his pampered actors into the heart of the jungle. Cockburn's stars include Stiller as an action hero who's starting to make bad career choices, Jack Black as an insecure low-brow comedy star going through heroin withdrawals, and Robert Downey Jr. as an Australian Oscar winner so lost in his "craft" he underwent a procedure to become black for his role. In the jungle, they remain under the delusion that they are still being filmed even after they encounter a dangerous gang of druglords. The film's basic premise has popped up several times since Hollywood's 1970s golden age in films such as THREE AMIGOS! and GALAXY QUEST. Where those films simply blanketed a classic Overconfident Bumbling Idiot comedy showcase with a pop culture lexicon, however, TROPIC THUNDER could have only been made, as on-the-nose at is, by people who have been working in the Hollywood system for years, making cutting observations along the way. Simply put, this raucous satire knows big-budget filmmaking, the delusional narcissism of actors, and even the good points of those actors--perhaps why they're celebrated--like the back of its hand. [More]

Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Brandon T. Jackson

Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Steve Coogan, Bill Hader, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise

Director: Ben Stiller

Director: Ben Stiller
Screenwriter: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen
Story: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux
Producer: Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfield, Eric McLeod
Composer: Theodore Shapiro
Studio: Dreamworks SKG

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Release:

May 5, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

Blu-ray Disc Features:

  • Region [unknown]
  • Sensormatic
  • Director's Cut
  • Full Frame - 1.33
  • Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French, Spanish
  • Dolby TRue HD - English, French, Spanish
  • Subtitles - English, French, Portuguese, Spanish

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Reviews for Tropic Thunder

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Not a third as "dark" or "ferocious" as it believes it is

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment 1 Comment
08/26/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

bilo je te%u0161ko izbje%u0107i jo%u0161 jednu tre%u0161nju holivudske gore koja je rodila mi%u0161a

Full Review Source: Index.hr | comment 1 Comment
07/15/09
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
Index.hr

Sure, there are some moments when the plot falls right down a gun barrel, the comedy is too over the top and the jokes are downright gross. Still, in comparison to the other slapstick comedies this year, this movie-within-a-movie strikes above the rest.

Full Review Source: BET.com | comment Comment
07/07/09
Clay Cane
Clay Cane
BET.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

Tropic Thunder is one humongous vanity project for Ben Stiller. His initials aren't BS for nothing. If you can't get enough of bouncing Ben, Tropic Thunder is the movie for you. Ben Stiller acted in, co-wrote, produced, and directed Tropi

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment 5 Comments
02/01/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly

Is this a comedy -- or a cry for help?

Full Review Source: ÜberCiné | comment 1 Comment
01/12/09
Gregory Weinkauf
Gregory Weinkauf
ÜberCiné

Tropic Thunder turns out to be a very funny film with an immensely talented cast that will be the topic of any water cooler conversation.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum | comment Comment
01/04/09
Jolene Mendez
Jolene Mendez
Entertainment Spectrum

Stiller's parody of Hollywood opportunism and insecurities is fairly lacerating, but perhaps could've been more so had not the whole thing been played so broadly.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
12/31/08
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

Cruise is downright scary. It's the creepiest -- and most entertaining -- performance since his unforgettable appearance in that Scientology video.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
12/21/08
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

The action movie has been spoofing itself for years. Half of the time it's no even intentional. Ben Stiller's hilarious and surprisingly intelligent Tropic Thunder takes the genre spoof to a new extreme.

Full Review Source: Movie Views | comment Comment
12/08/08
Ryan Cracknell
Ryan Cracknell
Movie Views

Tropic Thunder focuses its satire on this Hollywoodization of war, as it depicts the production of a Vietnam genre film that's less "Platoon" than "Platoon Leader" with Michael Dudikoff.

Full Review Source: CinemaBlend.com | comment Comment
12/06/08
Brian Holcomb
Brian Holcomb
CinemaBlend.com

A journey into Hollywood's heart of darkness.

Full Review Source: Film Snobs | comment Comment
11/20/08
Stephen Himes
Stephen Himes
Film Snobs

Un excelente entretenimiento, realmente gracioso y divertido, que se permite tomarle el pelo a la misma industria de la que sale.

Full Review Source: Uruguay Total | comment Comment
11/18/08
Enrique Buchichio
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total

Even with its excess and undeniably heavy hand, this is a whole lot of fun as a satire of Hollywood, a take off on war/ action flicks and as a straight-ahead action movie.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
11/17/08
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

... it attacks celebrity culture and the excesses of Hollywood filmmaking ... with a wink and slap on the back, celebrating that same culture as much as it ridicules it.

Full Review Source: DVD Review | comment Comment
11/14/08
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review

...when you throw enough gags at an audience, some of them are bound to work.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
11/13/08
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

Stiller is terrific, and Downey is somewhat better than terrific -- inspired. ... Tropic Thunder really is hysterical; and it even manages, now and then, to surprise.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles CityBeat | comment Comment
11/12/08
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

Tiptoes to the fine line between irony and insight and blows it to smithereens. It's hilarious.

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
Joe Williams
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Though some of the caricatures wear thin, some of the acting rises to a high level.

Full Review Source: CNN.com | comment 4 Comments
10/18/08
Tom Charity
Tom Charity
CNN.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A delightfully entertaining, very funny movie.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders | comment Comment
10/18/08
Janos Gereben
Janos Gereben
Entertainment Insiders
 
 
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Latest News for Tropic Thunder

January 08, 2009: Broadcast Film Critics Name Critics' Choice Winners
The 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards were given on January 8, 2009, to honor the finest achievements in 2008 filmmaking. A list of nominees follows below, with winners in bold: More...

January 07, 2009: Slate's Movie Club Looks Back at 2008 Opens in new window
Slate's Movie Club, boasting an all-female lineup for 2009, has convened to debate the best movies of '08. More...

December 12, 2008: Weekly Ketchup: Tom Cruise to return as Tropic Thunder's Les Grossman
This week sees a surprising lack of the remakes we've gotten used to seeing in the Weekly Ketchup, with the shelving of one horror remake balancing out a movie that is only a... More...

December 12, 2008: Les Grossman: The Movie? Opens in new window
Tom Cruise's foulmouthed studio executive, Les Grossman, stole the show in "Tropic Thunder" and earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. Could a Les Grossman feature film be next? More...

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