The test of a real comedian is whether you laugh at him before he opens his mouth.
-George Jean Nathan (an American drama critic and editor)
- Jack Black, Ben Stiller, and Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
I know this movie came out a long time ago, but me and my friend were watching it for the first time and frankly, I was very excited due to this stellar cast that probably could equal to the time I watched “The Dark Knight”. What made this movie so appealing to me was the varying roles that each of these actors played; Jack Black played an obese buffoon who thinks his humor is top notch, and yet unknowingly crude and gross; Ben Stiller plays an action-packed superstar who only knows excitement through bombs and possibly summersaults; Robert Downey Jr. plays a critically acclaimed actor who will go through any depths to be a certain character and, as the movie suggests, he wonderfully plays an African American character without making society angrily turn its head.
I was really thinking this movie was going to be a full on action-comedy thriller, and I got my money’s worth for the first 20 minutes. It was amazing to see an super-reality version of what actors and actresses may be doing outside the set: being pre madonnas. For the first 20 minutes, you also get to see the famous Tom Cruise as a malicious and powerful company executive who takes no bs from anyone and frankly is someone you wouldn’t want to bump heads with figuratively or literally. And folks, the conversation between Robert Downey Jr’s charchter and Ben Stiller’s character about being a mentally retarded character was only an insult to Ben Stiller’s character, not to the actual people with the disability itself. I was impressed by Ben Stiller’s choice of actors which fortunately did not make me leave my seat due to the fact that the rest of the movie was frankly dull.
Don’t get me wrong, the humor was there but the timing wasn’t. You feel as if the humor was forced out of them and I myself had to force a giggle or two. You would be surprised that Jack Black didn’t have a meatier role in this movie, but rather became just a a minute-brunt of all jokes. Ben Stiller overplayed his character and tried to find the balance between being an idiot who didn’t realize he was NOT in a movie AND timing his jokes when he thought he was in one. I am sorry I can’t really remember any good scenes because there was nothing worth remembering at the end of the movie… It was all a blur.
After a while, you realize that the only thing you would be cherish is the star-studded cast and the potential this movie had to be that funny and that hilarious. But oh well, I guess all I could feel, during the movie, was how bad I wanted to get off my seat. I give this a movie a 
