See the Thunder

Tonight, I went to see Tropic Thunder, the comedy about a group of actors who suddenly find themselves in real combat while making a Vietnam war movie. This film has been getting a lot of good buzz, including some from people claiming it's the funniest movie of the year.

It is. But don't let that set your hopes too unreasonable. It's been a pretty weak year for movies, so the bar wasn't set too high. Don't get me wrong, this is good and worth seeing, but I think it'll fall short for you if you start to believe the hype too much.

Now let me contradict my warning and hype it a bit myself.

Ben Stiller is great in this. I suppose whether you'll agree depends on which of the two Ben Stillers you like (if either) -- the zany and unrealistic Ben Stiller of Zoolander and Dodgeball, or the "straight man" of Meet the Parents. This movie stars the former, the one I happen to like, and he's great.

I've been sort of indifferent to Jack Black in the past, but he's funny here. Maybe it's that I've felt like a little of him goes a long way; here, he's just part of ensemble cast, providing many great moments without running unchecked over everything.

Robert Downey Jr. IS great -- that part of the hype you should probably believe. Nearly all the biggest laughs in the film come from him. It's a real testament to his skill that he can make a character so hysterical that could be tasteless and offensive if taken just one notch to the side.

But you could argue that the rest of the cast is as good or better than the "headliners." Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Cruise all take minor roles and make every second count. Strange cameos from many other celebrities provide laugh out loud moments. (I'd name some of them, but in many cases it would just spoil a good joke.)

Perhaps best of all is the series of fake movie trailers that start off the film. You may have liked the fake trailers in Grindhouse, but these play the joke even better. Where the Grindhouse trailers kind of reveled in their phoniness, these are almost scarily authentic. Somehow, they got a variety of different film studios to play along and actually put their real studio logos on the trailers. And each one feels eerily close to a real trailer for an actual movie we have seen. They prime the pump, putting you in the mood to laugh at how ridiculous Hollywood (and the mammoth egos associated with it) can be.

I rate the movie a B+ (and those trailers an A+).