Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Through an amateur's eyes - a review of "Tropic Thunder"


I'm not quite sure what made me want to see "Tropic Thunder." Maybe it was because it stars Robert Downey, Jr. (I love Robert Downey, Jr. - the cleaned up, sober RDJ), maybe it was because I'd heard it was pretty funny, and I like funny....and maybe part of it was because the heat and humidity of the last week were wearing on my last nerve, and I can always count on the movie theater to have the air conditioning cranked.

Whatever the reason, I questioned my sanity for the first couple of minutes. After the normal studio movie previews, the film started with some phony previews of it's own. One bogus ad, in particular, was about something called a "Bust-a-nut" candy bar, and "Booty Sweat" energy drink. Can you say R.A.U.N.C.H.Y.? Yeah? Me too.

Once the movie kicked into gear, and the story started to unfold, I found myself laughing out loud quite a bit. Oh, sure, part of it was in hopes of waking up the guy that was passed out and snoring next to me, (read about that here...) but mostly it was because the crude humor tickled my funny bone. Robert Downey, Jr. was excellent, Ben Stiller (who also directed) was great, and Jack Black was a riot.

I won't be a spoiler and give away too much of the plot (yes, there actually is a bit of a plot) but suffice it to say that if you have an open mind, don't mind some very vulgar humor, and can put yourself into a "15 year old boy" frame of mind for a couple of hours, you are sure to enjoy this goof-ball comedy. I hate to admit it, but I did take Pickle (14 y.o.d.) and A.J. (15 y.o.s.) along with Hubby to see this flick. Everyone laughed, though uncomfortably at times, and it's given us a bit of new fodder to quote from. I'll give this movie a "B," I did enjoy it, but some of the crudeness was a bit over the top. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

1 comment:

Shirl said...

Hey, I told you A.J. would like it, but I never thought you'd take Pickle. Sorry about the embarrassment.