Sunday, August 17, 2008

Very. Funny. Movie.

Believe the hype about "Tropic Thunder." From the first jarring surprise, to the last wacky dance, this movie is just plain original and funny.

Maybe even more unlikely, it's daring. There's so much political incorrectness, it's actually startling, and you almost cringe at the parts you can't believe are actually unfolding before you. We don't live in a time when writers and actors and directors are this fearless. Just about everything is watered down, and every movie company is terrified that segments of its audience will be offended. Well, this one goes to great lengths to ignore the possibility of offense. Amazing given the very vocal groups likely to condemn this movie.

There's a lot of talent involved in "Tropic Thunder." But that's never a guarantee of anything. Great creative teams have often turned out utter pus-filled piles of dung. This would not be a pile of dung.

One of the most fun things about this movie is that it pokes fun of the movies, and the people that make movies. There are a ton of inside jokes, but they don't slow down the pace one bit.

The only sour note of the evening wasn't related to this movie. Those f-ing marketing people and their f-ing trailers are f-ing ruining movies for everyone! I always wait until well after the movie's official starting time before I go into the theater, because I want to make sure to NOT see the trailers, but I saw two tonight, and I'm quite sure they will have ruined the two movies being promoted. There has GOT to be a way to market movies without giving away so many key plot points! Grrr.

Oh, well. Let's stay focused on the good things in life. Things like Robert Downey Jr. deserving an Oscar nomination this year. Which will never, ever happen of course, unless it's for that superhero movie, which will also never happen.

See "Tropic Thunder." I'm an Internet Comedy Icon, so my opinion means more than most. And that's the story I'm sticking to.

6 comments:

Jen said...

I loved it as well. Thought the fake teaser trailers were genius. That's not a spoiler, is it?

Scott Roeben said...

Yes, that is a spoiler! Although, technically, the part I was most duped by (and creatively smitten with admiration by) wasn't the trailer, per se. I'm not saying what for one month, though.

Chris Robinson said...

I am getting pretty sick of commercials before the trailders and product placements in the movies.

I pay $10 to see a film, I don't want to be propandized to buy Coke or Sprint phones. The last film we saw was Dark Knight. Misty and I had gone to The Yardhouse to put back several beers and we arrived at the theater a bit loopy. I was yelling at the screen each time they showed a commercial.

They even showed a commercial that was a parody of The Breakfast Club. When the ad ended I yelled, "Eat my shorts!" NOBODY got it. Stupid teenagers.

Scott Roeben said...

There is no better protest against the proliferation of ads before movies than a drunk guy yelling at a movie screen yelling "Eat my shorts." Period.

Chris Robinson said...

I find it sad that the new generation of adults and kids do not see product placements as advertisments. Rather, they see them as "Stuff they like" that is ending up in the movie.

In a way, kids relate to a character more if that character has an Ipod, because "like um...I have a ipod, and everything too, like,like um..."

I just have to find a way to deal with my skin crawling everytime I see some corporate logo feces on a closeup shot just at a pivotal moment during the plot. Nothing like associating Pepsi with the hero just as the hero decides to save the earth.

I don't mind any ads or product placement on broadcast TV, because that is already pretty much the norm. We get free TV in exchange for watching ads. Quite fair. But I paid $10 and bought $1,100 in popcorn and soda. I don't wanna see some crappy product. I came to see a crapy hollywood product and I don't wanna be distracted.

Scott Roeben said...

Hey, Chris. Here's an interesting factoid for ya: Ford appeared in 57.7% of number one films from 2007 to 2008.