Tropic Thunder

The Story

This is the story of a group of actors on the set of a new war movie that isn’t going too well, the movie is over budget and the actors have lost their way. The film is on the brink of being shut down as an accidental explosion angers studio executive Les Grossman Played by Tom Cruise.
The writer of the movie John Tayback’s played by Nick Nolte suggests to the Director played by Steve Coogan that he send the actors into the jungle to learn some real skills as to what it’s like to survive in the jungle.

But all is not as it seems as there is also a drug cartel in the jungle who think that the actors are real soldiers out to get them. The actors think that it’s all part of their training and go along with it also thinking that their director being blown to bits by a land mine was just some very cool special effects.

Armed with blanks and having no idea about the cartel the merry band of ‘soldiers’ played by Robert Downey Jnr as Kirk, Tugg played by Ben Stiller, Apla played by Brandon T Jackson and Jeff played by Jack Black and Kevin Sandusky playing Jay try to follow the map to their destination and unsurprisingly get lost on the way.

Cody Underwood, the pyrotechnics played by Danny R. McBride and Tayback get taken by the Cartel along with Tugg and the Actors set out to rescue them.

What I liked about the movie

Before I watched this movie I was expecting an overly budgeted, star driven disaster and was pleasantly surprised that it was the funniest film of 2008. Robert Downey Jnr played the best part as his character had undergone pigment changing surgery to darken his skin to play a black man and had me laughing throughout.

It kind of reminded me of The Three Amigos but was miles better and had only a small similarity to the film as they are also actors mistaken for the parts that they play. The effects were really good and the comedy was funny and sometimes hilarious.

What I didn’t like

There wasn’t much I didn’t like as all the elements were there for a good comedy and all the parts played themselves well and although some of it was a bit daft it didn’t spoil the movie for me.

Would I recommend this

I would definitely recommend this as it was a great movie and if you don’t laugh at least once then you need a new funny bone transplant. One of the few the good surprises of 2008.

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