Next thing they know, action icon Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Australian Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), flatulence comedy kingpin Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), risqué rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and nebbish up-and-comer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), along with technical advisor Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) and pyrotechnics engineer Cody (Danny McBride), find themselves under assault by a group of hardened military-trained drug traffickers under the illusion they’re all really DEA agents sent to take them out. Forced with having to put their own problems, paranoia and insecurities aside, this group of thespians must rise as one if they ever hope to make it out of the jungle alive.

Tropic Thunder is hands down the year’s funniest comedy released so far. Gloriously profane, deliriously flipping political correctness the bird, this satire of contemporary Hollywood and furiously insane idiosyncratic insecurities of the actors working inside of it is one of the more audacious and original satires of recent memory.  Without a doubt, this is the best film Stiller has ever directed, arguably the best one he’s ever been associated with, and in a year when so little has made me laugh this one nearly had me doubling over into the aisle holding my sides in sidesplitting euphoric pain.

This is not just hyperbole. Writers Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen have deconstructed the action movie to near perfection. More, they have skewered the current Philistine mentality permeating Hollywood with pinpoint accuracy. They take no prisoners and pull no punches, every slap, jab and full-on punch hammering their targets as if they were Michael Phelps smashing world records in the swimming pool.

But their deepest cuts and insults are saved for the clueless group of actors trying their dimwitted best to survive. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you, Stiller and his gang of fearless reprobates skewer their profession with such grizzly cannibalistic relish you can’t help but come away impressed. The best bits involve Downey, Jr., almost unrecognizable in his Louis Gossett, Jr. meets Fred Williamson military getup, and newcomer Jackson going at one another, the former refusing to drop out of character even though the stopped rolling long ago.

Beyond that, however, are a couple of titanic larger-than-life performances some won’t see coming. Cruise is absolutely Oscar-worthy as the Jerry Bruckheimer/Joel Silver producer who oozes gleefully malevolent Machiavellian foul-mouthed nihilistic ferocity. Still, the man’s been nominated a couple of times, and even though he’s seen better days the fact he’s superbly (and unrecognizably) exceptional might not be much of a surprise.

What is a shock, and it is one I quite frankly still can’t quite believe, is that as good as Cruise and Downey, Jr. are (and they are the talented cast’s crème de la crème), coming near equal to them is, of all people, Matthew McConaughey. If there is any actor I can’t stand more then any other at the moment it must be this Fool’s Gold and Sahara chest-thumping male mannequin. Yet he comes alive here, absolutely reveling in every fiber of his oily agent character’s persona to the point you almost wonder if he’s even acting. This is the best he’s been in ages, maybe since he first burst onto the scene in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, the fact of which a full week later is still driving me more then a bit insane.

Some are going to have problems with the almost abrasive, take no prisoners, in your face and defiantly sensationalistic style of the comedy. It goes without saying that the filmmakers do cross a line here and there (at least for me), but more often than not they do it, not in an arrogant or hurtful way, but in a fashion that showcases the absurdly narcissistic nature of the central figures masquerading as human beings trying to survive their brutally unfathomable situation.

True satire should not be easy. More, it also shouldn’t be clean or careful, and much like M*A*S*H, Catch 22 and Dr. Strangelove, Stiller elevates his game to a level just about unheard of for either him or anyone else (save, unsurprisingly, Downey, Jr.) in his cast or crew. While I wouldn’t quite put it in that rarified war-torn stratosphere the fact that Tropic Thunder is even worth mentioning in the same breath as those classics should speak volumes. This isn’t just a comedy, it’s an event, a high-water achievement worth celebrating, and the only thing left for me to do is to tell everyone I know to see it today.

- review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle 

Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)

Additional Links

-  Interview with actor Steve Coogan by Sara Michelle Fetters
-  Tropic Thunder Theatrical Trailer