Tropic Thunder lives up to the hype

Tropic Thunder

Director: Ben Stiller

Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise

Cert: 16

The much-anticipated – and controversial (because of Downey’s blacked-up face routine and the use of the word retard) – satire on all that is horrible about Hollywood finally arrives and lives up to the hype.

The plot involves a group of actors in the jungle to make a movie who suddenly find themselves playing soldiers for real against drug barons.

It’s the sort of film that makes you cringe deliciously at the antics of filmdom.

Stiller, who has his fans yet still has not quite conquered all our hearts, does a great job as both director and one of the stars and is matched by Cruise, albeit in a relatively minor role, who turns in a performance that betters some of his most recent ‘major’ films.

The casting brings us a line-up of some of Hollywood’s top stars in walk-on roles: Danny McBride, Toby Maguire, Steve Coogan.

It’s a telling film and a funny one in that macho, slightly crude way that Hollywood seems to love but overall, since it’s what we expect, it’s the sort of film that male audiences particularly will lap up.

Star Rating: 3/5