Tropic Thunder

A little retard goes a long ways in this new film written, starring and directed by Ben Stiller. Before we honor quadruple threat Stiller (he also produces) consider that the best moments in the film are short lived and belong to Robert Downey, Jr., and in a glorified cameo Tom Cruise. Bring on the controversy because it's always good for the box office but also realize that Tropic Thunder is just barely politically incorrect.
A bevy of pretty boy actors (Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr.) are tricked by their novice director (Steve Coogan) into shooting a war film on location in the middle of the jungle. Along with tech advisor Nick Nolte and special effects man Danny McBride (reminiscent of Chuck Bail from The Stunt Man only more deranged), plus supporting actors Jay Baruchel and Brandon T. Jackson, the group finds themselves stranded and fighting a real conflict with Asian drug lords.
Most of the really funny moments revolve around Downey (a method actor who's dyed his skin to play Afro) and his ludicrous line readings. "Never go full retard," he advises Stiller. When someone puts a mix video of Downey's best lines on YouTube then you can see all Tropic Thunder has to offer without actually having to sit through the entire film. Downey's character says as much, calling the film-within-a-film some "Planet of the Apes straight to YouTube" movie. "I don't drop character until I've done the DVD commentary."
Also funny, but not overwhelmingly, is the film's producer (Cruise in balding and hirsute make-up). Yes you will crack up but somehow you wish Cruise were getting yucks by doing something other than yelling "Fuck you" at his underlings. "A monkey without nuts could do your job," Cruise intones to his assistant Bill Hader. The part in the movie that was to be played by Owen Wilson now has Matthew McConaughey as a harried agent (think Jeremy Piven in Entourage) dealing with his star client. This role wasn't funny to begin with, and McConaughey seems to be rolling a large stone uphill each time he appears.
Tropic Thunder's not a total waste of time. If you've seen the summer movies it has more laughs than such supposed winners as Get Smart. It would be impossible not to giggle at Jack Black's surreptitious heroin withdrawal sequence. The benchmark of laughter has been consistently lowered over the last few years that an audience will eat this up like stale popcorn.
For the record, in the last decade I would say these are the most brilliant American comedies: The Big Lebowski, Something About Mary, I Heart Huckabees and Superbad. If Tropic Thunder gets a mixed review it's due to the ambivalence of seeing a witty Downey, Jr. making his schtick work while the rest of the film rests on the laurels of what all these guys have done before. Conjure Zoolander but with a lot of violence and you have the tone. Occasionally the cinematography of John Toll makes you think you're in a different, more serious movie.