Movie Review - Tropic Thunder

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2008 – Spoiler alerts A very funny and irreverent comedy war movie about actors in a terribly earnest Vietnam movie getting caught up in a real-life drug war and failing to realize the difference. After their egotistical clashes mess up a pivotal scene and push he movie budget sky high, the cast are sent into the jungle to improvise their way through scenes surrounded by staged explosions and they are given blank ammo to fire around. Unfortunately, the area they are dumped in is owned by a local drug baron, (actually a child) and his army of very real deadly henchmen. It takes the heroes some time to realize their problems are real. To make it worse, their producer wants them to die so he can claim the insurance and the book their war film was based on proves to have been faked all along. The fake DVD trailers for the other films its cast are famous for are hilarious, as is Tom Cruise’s outrageous performance as their producer. Ben Stiller and Jack Black are funny enough but Robert Downey Junior is superb as an Australian actor blacking himself up and trying to stay in character even in the company of real black actors. Hilarious, with lots of blink and you’ll miss them cameos, including scenes with Steve Coogan, Sean Penn, and Tobey Maguire. Arthur Chappell