Miscellaneous

Jeremy Reviews: Tropic Thunder

By jeremyblachman

Apologies that posting has been really light lately.  It may pick up.

I saw Tropic Thunder this afternoon.  First 20 minutes and last 20 minutes are really good.  I kept wanting to fast forward through the hour in the middle.  Having a DVR at home is bad when you go to the movies.  I kept reaching for a remote control that wasn't there.  It's not a bad movie, it's not unwatchable, but the fun of the movie is in the premise -- actors in a war movie in the jungle end up fighting a war in the jungle -- and once we get to the part where they're actually doing the fighting, it's just a war movie, and where's the fun in that?  In this respect, and pretty much every respect, this movie is Galaxy Quest.  The satire of the entertainment industry is very funny, but once we're playing with plot, I could take it or leave it.  Tom Cruise is excellent in his role as the film studio chief, and whenever we're watching the Hollywood side of things, the movie is great.  When we're in the jungle, it's only OK.  Jay Baruchel does a nice job grounding the movie in some sort of reality and being the only character who isn't totally off his gourd.  As far as the press the movie's been getting, about being offensive to all sorts of people, I don't know, it's all done pretty broadly and if you compare this to, say, The Ringer, from a few years ago, that was orders of magnitude more offensive, no question.

Full post as published by Jeremy Blachman's Brand New Weblog on August 19, 2008 (boomark / email).