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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

Tropic Thunder

In this comedy, self-absorbed actors making a war movie find themselves in a real conflict in Southeast Asia. We sent our TBO.com Street Team to check it out and share their thoughts.

"Tropic Thunder" is the sharply satirical film playing the gross-out, politically incorrect comedy flick disguised as an action/war genre spoof.

I'm always a sucker for the film within a film idea, so I enjoyed seeing "Tropic Thunder" push this concept to the extreme. It skewers, satirizes and spoofs a variety of topics with a variety of success, including the profit-obsessed, cutthroat movie-making industry; the veracity of memoirists; product placement in films; obsessed, over-dedicated method actors; racism and racial stereotypes; and the Oscars.

Robert Downey, Jr. dominates the film as the successful, blond Australian actor Kirk Lazarus, who undergoes a controversial skin-pigmentation procedure in order to portray a black soldier. Several of the film's funniest moments were when Lazarus is confronted by Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a black actor who's upset about the lead role going to a white actor portraying a black man.

Lisa Ciurro

I laughed out loud so much during this movie.

I have to say that I went in expecting it to suck horribly, based on the previews. And once I threw out the hopes that the film would be good, it actually ended up being awesome! Ben Stiller truly has outdone himself in this flick. This movie is the best worst movie ever made.

It's one of those movies you go to when the theater first opens so you can slip in because you don't want anyone to know you went to see it. It's also the movie you don't want anyone to know you loved!

I would recommend this movie only to people who can appreciate the humor and silliness.

Ashley Grant

Read more thoughts from Reel People and add your voice to the mix at TBOextra.com Movies.

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