Tropic Thunder

So as I'm unemployed i have the luxury of watching a lot of TV and spending a fair bit of time on the Internet. As a result I was aware that Stephen Fry was to appear on the 1st episode of Friday Night with Jonathon Woss since his colossus cock up, I'm following Fry on Twitter.

I've always been a fan of Stephen Fry, initially for his roles in Blackadder but also because he is a G on QI and basically a national treasure, and decided to catch up with the Wossy show on Monday to see what went down (thank you iPLayer!!!). The other guests were Lee Evans who can make funny faces but in my opinion kinda sucks as a comedian and Tom Cruise who is NOT a comedian, or so i thought. One of the first things that Fry was to say was the incredible performance from Cruise in 'Tropic Thunder' as Les Grossman.

Hmmmmm I had my doubts about 'Tropic Thunder' as 'just another Ben Stiller movie' (nice but stupid person gets into hillarious scrapes and comes good in the end) and definitely had my doubts about the clip that they showed on Wossy's show of Grossman (cruise) dancing to Flowrider which out of context looked about as funny as a piece of A4 paper.

Later in the Day another interview with someone from Valkyrie, Kevin McNally this time on possibly the most ludicrous thing i have ever witnessed - the Alan Titchmarsh Show (pensioners swooning is all i expect at this point) don't ask why i was watching. Obviously because Titchmarsh really dreamt of Cruise coming on his show most of the incredibly short interview was about Cruise, obviously witnessing these messages from god that i should plan my evening around staying in and watching Tom Cruise or people talking about Tom Cruise I decided i would give 'Tropic Thunder' a go.

Less Grossman is possibly the best character in the entire film and Cruise delivers it perfectly. His Don't Fuck With Me attitude and the torrent of swearing that he releases is a great excuse to laugh out loud and is a very chalky chalk to the nice but stupid cheese of Tugg Speedman (Stiller). Stillers does have one scene which made me crack up tho involving a primate but don't want to spoil it for you.

The movie is littered with stars and they all do a fairly good job. Robert Downy Jr is brilliant as Kirk Lazarus but I would have liked to see his character and Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) kick off a bit more at some point.

Cruise and McConaguhey carry the story from outside the jungle nicely and have a couple of funny interactions.

In the jungle the interaction between Cody (Danny McBride from Pineapple Express) and Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) is definitely worth a watch, in all of McBrides films he carries of his roles excellently, and the performance from Jay Burrel is great.

Jack Black however didn't really get going till right at the end of the film and I guess his part was just a bit shoddy. He did what he could with what he was given.

Overall, I was actually surprised to find it a film which made me laugh a lot. I really was expecting 'just another Ben Stiller movie' but then again whenever i do expect that I thank god its not 'just another Adam Sandler movie'. Stillers production is definitely worth a watch and although there are lots of similarities in his character to Zoolander it still works. The other cast members do him proud and its definitely worth a watch.

6/10