Ladies and Gentleman, may I present the most expensive R-rated movie ever made.  Is it worth it?  Well, as Yoda might say: money does not funny a film make.

Taking a page from Grindhouse, Tropic Thunder opens with a hilarious bang—but then moves into a very uneven, over-the-top comic action scene that fails to get the movie off to a clean start. It never recovers. 

The plot focuses on the production of a Vietnam War film starring a washed-up action star (played by Ben Stiller), a one-joke comedian (played by Jack Black) and a rowdy, award-winning Australian method actor (played by Robert Downey, Jr.). 

When the rookie director can’t corral his pampered cast, he decides to dump them in the middle of the jungle to fend for themselves—with hidden cameras, in order to record their “authentic” struggle. As a result, the cast members find themselves firing blanks at armed members of a real-life drug cartel.

I’ve long been a fan of Ben Stiller the actor, but more as the unlucky everyman he played in films like Meet the Parents and There’s Something About Mary than as the self-centered macho man he plays here—or to an even more extreme level in Dodgeball.  He’s like the American version of Hugh Grant, an actor who just can’t seem to make the leap from adorable schlep to cocky cad.  But it’s not his skill as an actor that fails Tropic Thunder as much as his inexperience as a director.

With his first behind-the-camera effort since 2001’s Zoolander, Stiller can’t seem to find the delicate balance between Hollywood satire, gross-out comedy, and action flick.  It seems at times that for the lack of an original comic idea, the film falls back on testing the audience’s gag reflex and sending its stars on profanity-laced tirades.  Whereas some may find Tom Cruise—as an overweight, balding studio head—violently cussing out a kidnapping drug dealer funny, I found it to be so far over-the-top that it was dull.

I also found the film to be relatively offensive, and in a way I was not expecting it to be.  The controversy that has been building all summer is one surrounding the character played by Robert Downey, Jr., a method actor who goes through skin pigmentation surgery in order to play the film’s African-American sergeant.  It’s blackface for the 21st Century.  Although I found some moments of that portrayal in questionable taste, it never really approached the point of offense. 

On the other hand, I did find the Stiller character’s portrayal of the dimwitted “Simple Jack” to have gone a little too far, and I even found myself cringing at moments—and this is coming from someone whose sensibilities are not offended easily at the movies.  I now see why certain activist groups are asking for a boycott of the film—something that I’m sure will only increase its boxoffice appeal.

Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that I find no redeeming value in Tropic Thunder.  It’s fun to spot the many references to classic war films like Saving Private Ryan—a rare moment in which I did burst into laughter—and Platoon.  There’s also a delightful Indiana Jones moment for Black’s heroin-addict.

I also enjoyed some of the film’s The Player-like satire; but most of the moments that generated laughter from the promotional screening audience resulted from the gross-out gags and excessive cursing. Maybe I’ve just become inoculated to that approach after having seen so many films that thrive on that kind of humor. 

Still, maybe where Tropic Thunder goes wrong is its failure to create characters to care about.  Whereas I wanted nothing but the best for Peter Bretter in the year’s best comedy to date (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), I didn’t give a darn whether Stiller and company got out of the jungle alive or not.  Cruel?  Maybe.  But hey, this is Hollywood.

Tropic Thunder is rated R for “pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material.”  There’s no mistaking this comedy as anything less than R-rated, with its aggressive foul language and bloody violence.  It may be for comedic effect, but it’s still foul.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Tropic Thunder.