cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Aug 16, 2008 0:29:42 GMT -8
Anybody else catch this? First great parody since Shaun of the Dead, in my opinion. Especially after having seen the previews for Disaster Movie right before it. The film starts out with great laughs, and unlike most comedies, they don't stop until the very end (albeit a somewhat unfortunate ending).
Obviously, people have already made up their minds about seeing Robert Downey Jr. play a black guy, but there's actually a lot of moments in the film that are just as funny as the ones in the trailers. Also, I like the super-cocky characters that Ben Stiller plays (as opposed to the wretched everything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong characters in the other films) and he doesn't disappoint. And lo and behold, Tom Cruise has a great performance. This is the way to make a comeback from people thinking you've lost it, not making an insane political film like Lions for Lambs.
Overall, just a great, smart, hilarious film. Highly recommended.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Aug 16, 2008 7:55:22 GMT -8
This film was superb, yes.
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Post by indy2003 on Aug 16, 2008 13:03:08 GMT -8
I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. It's a good companion piece to "Pineapple Express" (though I like this one more). Nice to have a smart satire of Hollywood in these barren days of "Meet the Spartans" and "Disaster Movie". Robert Downey Jr. was particularly superb. My only big complaint is that Stiller shouldn't have cast himself in the lead. He's not convincing as an action star. The part would have been better suited to somebody like Vin Diesel.
Back at ya later
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Aug 16, 2008 14:52:16 GMT -8
I was thinking Dwayne Johnson, but yes. Spot on.
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Post by greenaxer on Aug 17, 2008 9:49:13 GMT -8
I was thinking Dwayne Johnson, but yes. Spot on. +1.
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cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Aug 17, 2008 12:35:40 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson would have made Downey Jr.'s character pretty redundant.
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Post by indy2003 on Aug 17, 2008 14:22:35 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson would have made Downey Jr.'s character pretty redundant. How, exactly? Back at ya later
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cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Aug 17, 2008 15:15:41 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson would have made Downey Jr.'s character pretty redundant. How, exactly? Back at ya later Well, I guess redundant doesn't make much sense. But I was just thinking that if the main character of Tropic Thunder was black, why wouldn't Downey's character undergo the procedure in order to play the main character? That would have given him more attention, which is apparently what he was after.
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Aug 17, 2008 20:02:44 GMT -8
Ok, so Dwayne is of half African-Canadian, half Samoan decent, but I guess I never really thought of him as black.
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Post by indy2003 on Aug 18, 2008 6:54:59 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson also has some rather good comic timing, I think. He was one of the only good things about the disastrous "Be Cool".
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Post by General Silliness on Aug 18, 2008 11:08:30 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson also has some rather good comic timing, I think. He was one of the only good things about the disastrous "Be Cool". and Get Smart
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cheno
Conductor
Posts: 1,012
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Post by cheno on Aug 18, 2008 11:45:04 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson also has some rather good comic timing, I think. He was one of the only good things about the disastrous "Be Cool". Oh, I agree. One of those guys who is always in worse movies than he deserves to be in.
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Post by General Silliness on Aug 18, 2008 13:17:01 GMT -8
Dwayne Johnson also has some rather good comic timing, I think. He was one of the only good things about the disastrous "Be Cool". Oh, I agree. One of those guys who is always in worse movies than he deserves to be in. Southland "WTF?!" Tales
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Post by Jens Dietrich on Aug 19, 2008 3:10:57 GMT -8
As I like to call it: "Zardoz for the MTV generation".
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Jon Lord
Ghostwriter
Calvinism and Hobbes
Posts: 321
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Post by Jon Lord on Aug 19, 2008 19:19:24 GMT -8
I thought this was a great film and would love to see it again, which is a reaction I rarely have with big studio comedies.
Spoiler-y talk:
The only minor issue I have with it is in the climatic battle sequence the "real world" action and violence seemed not much different than what one would expect from "in-movie" action violence, which I felt somewhat deflated the satirical edge of the film. Not that I expected everyone to start dying when the actors tried to infiltrate a hostile paramilitary compound (though I think that would have been interesting), but they could have played with some of the practical absurdities of action film conventions some. Instead, it was like they were still in a movie, where anything can be used for cover from automatic weapons fire, explosions are bright pretty things you can escape from by running fast, and the bad guys can run through clips all day and not hit anything.
Perhaps having almost everyone get severely wounded or killed dead wouldn't the tone they wanted to shoot for at the end, but to me the one we ended up with ironically felt much too "hollywood ending" (for a split second I thought the kid with the RPG was going to blow the helicopter up at the end and kill everyone, but then Van Zan* came out of nowhere for a true WTF moment).
The main special guest star's role and end credits dance sequence was great fun.
*Envy the country that has heroes!? I say pity the country that needs em! What're you celebrating? One dragon down, three men dead... oh, yeah! At that rate we might just be getting somewhere in about three-hundred twenty years!
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