{"id":111,"date":"2009-05-16T18:24:40","date_gmt":"2009-05-16T18:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamjcobb.wordpress.com\/?p=111"},"modified":"2009-05-16T18:24:40","modified_gmt":"2009-05-16T18:24:40","slug":"on-tropic-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2009\/05\/16\/on-tropic-thunder\/","title":{"rendered":"On "Tropic Thunder""},"content":{"rendered":"

After watching the big-budget drivel that is A Night at the Museum<\/em> you can’t blame Ben Stiller for wanting to do a film like Tropic Thunder<\/em>, which seems underrated because only two things from this movie got much press: 1) the protests about his comedic use of ‘The Full Retard’ and 2) Tom Cruise as a fat studio executive. I can see why both issues got attention. Ben’s faux film Simple Jack<\/em> turns out to be fairly important to the plot and has its funny moments. Personally, sure, ‘retard’ jokes are a danger zone, certainly when it seems it’s the privileged movie star making fun of disadvantaged folk. Then again, it’s not meant to be taken seriously. (His hilarious turn at the Oscars, making fun of Joaquin Phoenix, was better, one movie star making fun of another movie star.) Tom Cruise starts off as a profane caricature but gets better as the movie goes on, and his Devil Dance is both weird and funny. He seemed to be making fun of himself as well, which he should get points for. One of the odd things about this faux-Nam movie is at times it looked too realistic, like it almost wanted to be another Apocalypse Now<\/em>. Apocalpyse Now Comix<\/em>, maybe, instead of Redux<\/em>. It’s worth seeing for some of Jack Black’s (who irritates me to no end, usually, but here he was good) moments as the fat junkie star in the jungle and Ben Stiller’s throwing the baby at the end. Or Nick Nolte as a gravelly-voiced Nam vet who never went to Nam. Or Matthew McConaughey’s hair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After watching the big-budget drivel that is A Night at the Museum you can’t blame Ben Stiller for wanting to do a film like Tropic Thunder, which seems underrated because only two things from this movie got much press: 1) … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t