by Alexander Van Terheyden

Created on: September 23, 2008

Written, Directed and starred in by the now legendary Ben Stiller Tropic Thunder comes at us guns blazing with full on comic timing.

I'm always pleased when a Hollywood picture stampedes into Multiplexes surrounded by controversy it dictates Tinsel-town isn't the weak pathetic fool it is often labelled to be by mainstream media outlets. The controversy comes at us with the words "Retard" (shock) and a white man undergoing a skin pigmentation operation enabling him to play 1970's stereotyped Black Man'! More of this later

The first 10minutes of the movie I found myself in stitches, from the word go we're introduced to the fictitious Hollywood stars through fake cinematic trailers introducing the movies they've just partaken in or in the case of Hip Hop Artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) a commercial promoting his Booty Sweat' drink. Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) while not as memorable or destined to be as iconic as Eric Zoolander still is hysterical we see him playing action hero in 'Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown' a character and a movie so repetitive in its story you wonder if the commentator has a belief in it any more! We learn later on in the satire that is Tropic Thunder, that this washed out action hero has recently produced a flop in which he played the "Retard" title character in the flop, 'Simple Jack', apparently considered one of the worst films of all time according to Access Hollywood'! Australian "five time Oscar winner" Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jnr.) offers an explanation on why Tugg Speedman's performance didn't go down as well as Rainman or Forest Gump later on by stating he was just "too retarded"! (This deserves later analysis). Lazarus (obviously a complete send up on Russell Crowe) is depicted as the better actor to Speedman his last film looks to be a hilarious Augustine Monk send up set in medieval ages to a Broke Back Mountain / Wonder Boys affair with "Co-winner of the MTV Best Kiss Award 2002" Tobey Maguire (as himself) as two monks who begin an impassioned affair under their robes! Lazarus probably the most ridiculous and yet funny of all those miss-cast in Tropic Thunder, has had his skin surgically dyed black in order to play Afro-American sergeant Lincoln Osiris, so passionate and devoted to the act of playing his character he refuses to drop out of character "until I have completed the DVD commentary" a true method actor! And then there's funny-man Jeff "Fatty" Portnoy (Jack Black), playing the entirety of "America's favourite

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