Action spoof is in bad taste, but has its moments

The producer of "Tropic Thunder" have spent $90 million producing a spoof of action movies - specifically, Vietnam flicks, such as "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon." Is this a sign that we are, at long last, able to put that controversial conflict behind us? Can we now laugh?

The humor, though, is pointed more at the vagaries of Hollywood than at anything approximating the real world. Yes, there are some hilarious moments as well as some occasionally witty writing in "Tropic Thunder." It's a tremendous setup for a classic comedy. (Is there anything so ripe for poking fun at as Hollywood's excesses?)

Since "Tropic" is sometimes on target, particularly in its opening 30 minutes, perhaps we shouldn't complain that it is often an opportunity missed.

The structure is a movie within a movie in which Ben Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, an over-the-hill action star who wants to go dramatic. Robert Downey Jr. plays a serious Australian actor who has won five Oscars and has now gone through skin-pigmentation surgery to play a black man. And Jack Black plays the star of the "Fattie" series in which he pretended to be an excessively flatulent comic.

Now, we are shown, they are all in 'Nam shooting an "important" film that is one month behind schedule in its first five days. (Don't ask.)

When we first meet them, Stiller, in a role originally intended for Keanu Reeves, is trying to act but finds it difficult to cry. Downey, an egotistical method actor, tells him in disgust to "shave your head and get back on the monkey bars."

To make things worse, a huge $4 million explosion is set off - but the cameras weren't running.

It is Stiller's first directorial effort in seven years, following his more hilarious spoof on the fashion industry called "Zoolander." In the past, he has been adept at suggesting nebbish misfits who try valiantly to fit in.

With great generosity, he gives the best moments to other actors.

There are two reasons to see this movie: the comic turns of Downey (completing an amazing comeback summer on top of "Iron Man") and, believe it or not, Tom Cruise. Cruise, unrecognizable in a fat suit, cameos as a maniac of a studio producer who yells at his moviemakers from far away in Hollywood. He adds a wild rock dance that reminds one of what started it all for him, 1983's "Risky Business." Cruise is out to prove that he has a sense of humor.

Downey plays his character, Kirk Lazarus, in what might be called blackface. Obviously, it is meant to be politically incorrect, particularly when Brandon T. Jackson, as a super-wealthy rapper named Alpa Chino, keeps knocking Lazarus for not letting him, a real black man, play the part. Downey says: "I'm the dude playing the dude, disguised as another dude." OK. We get it, but does the single "joke" have to be repeated so often?

Least of all is the tiresome Jack Black, who has nothing to do except crack druggie jokes and yell a lot. How long can he get away with repeating this bit in movie after movie? If he went on a diet, he'd be out of a job. It wouldn't hurt him, either, to hire a writer.

The movie was picketed at its Los Angeles opening because of a scene in which Tugg Speedman re-enacts a scene from his earlier fictional movie, "Simple Jack," in which he, according to the script, played a "total retard." Intent upon infuriating someone, the script points out that actors are likely to win Academy Awards if they just play "partially retard" as with Dustin Hoffman in "RainMan" or Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump." But if you go "total," as with Sean Penn in "I Am Sam" or Tugg in "Simple Jack," you come up awardless.

Special Olympics and the American Association of People With Disabilities are not amused. A boycott of the film has been promoted. But organizations that protest the word "retardation" in favor of "mentally challenged" (and good taste) are playing right into the hands of the producers by making a big fuss over this segment.

Knocking this movie for showing bad taste is like knocking a member of a nudist colony for not wearing clothes.

"Thunder" loses its way. When the Hollywood angle is dropped in favor of a "realistic" jungle trek, it sheds all hope of credibility.

Its best gags are no better than the spoofs in low-budgeted flicks.

While we might have hoped for real satire rather than merely scattershot gags, "Tropic Thunder," with its big-name cast, makes a viable bid to knock "Dark Knight" out of its phenomenal run atop the box-office list.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com