Tropic Thunder... kinda a mixed bag. It was funny at times but at others it tried and failed. The story itself was believable (not that it matters) but it seemed that many scenes, along with characters, were useless, ie everything having to do with Jack Black and the whole Tivo bit. Many lines also seemed to be thrown together at the last minute after all the good lines from the funny bin were used and thus just weren't that funny. Where the script sometimes failed, the acting by a couple kept the movie alive.
Robert Downey Jr. was nothing short of incredible. Never in the entire movie did he play his stereotypical sarcastic, arrogant, sleeze ball role that can be seen in nearly every other movie he's been in. Granted those roles are great (who didn't love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?) but playing two different characters was quite impressive.
Ben Stiller was Ben Stiller... playing the exact same role in every other movie he's been in (save Zoolander, and on the VMA's when he played Tom Crooze back in 2000). It seems he's going down the same road as Jason Biggs, getting that same unthrilling role every time. Perhaps he should stick to writing/directing. Like Stiller, Jack Black won't be among the reasons to see Tropic Thunder. There was very little funny about his fat/useless character nor much reason why he was in the movie at all.
Tom Cruise proved that he can actually act. True, he may be one notch lower than Mel Gibson on the crazy scale (yes, it does exist and is used throughout Zimbabwe), in a tad-bit motive questionable marriage and believe in a religion coined by a science fiction writer in 1952 (go to Wikipedia and type in Scientology and try to believe that people actually take it seriously without laughing), BUT the man played a role that rivals that of Robert DeNiro's role in Stardust or Ving Rhames in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Seeing Jerry Maguire scream obsenities that would shame Ari Gold while dancing to Get Low by Flo Rida is worth the $9.50 alone.
Oh, and although I loved The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix didn't really tickle my fancy so I can't say I'm overly excited for the Half Blood Prince, but it was definitely a smart move on Warner's part. After all, the movie business is in fact a business and CEO's need that new Gulfstream V (Go back to wikipedia and look it up, McConaughey's character wouldn't have considered selling out Stiller's for nothing). But like you said, it pinches the time frame between that and the next one. It'll be interesting to see how it measures up with those that haven't been released over the summer.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
"Love the blog. But Drew, you missed the boat on this one, or rather the bridge (On the River Kwai"), the mound of drugs/clay ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), and the "No matter what I say, don't untie me" (Young Frankenstein). There was a clever subtext of manipulation using classic film bits while skewering the manipulators. It was "just a manipulator playing a manipulator pretending to be another manipulator." And belly laughs up the wazzoo. Stiller's best work in some time.
From, Link, Sr.
Post a Comment