Missing In Action Redux!

In 1992, Ben Stiller created and starred in a weekly comedy variety show for HBO which parodied movies, television shows and commercials with hilarious results. “The Ben Stiller Show,” only lasted one season, but it launched it’s young star and creator on a promising career in comedy. Sixteen years later, Stiller uses his many talents as a writer, actor and director in bringing a laugh-filled parody of the Hollywood war film genre to the big screen.
In the 1980s when Stanley Kubrick made “Full Metal Jacket,” and Oliver Stone won an Oscar for his “Platoon,” many of the films actors were made to train in a mock boot-camp before production. In “Tropic Thunder,” Stiller (along with actor-turned-writer Justin Theroux who co-wrote the script) takes that idea one step further by transporting his actors right into a drug cartel controlled jungle in southeast Asia. In turn the actors are forced to become real soldiers while making this movie within a movie.
Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, an action movie star whose made one sequel too many who teams up with Australian actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) and comic star Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) to make a big budgeted film version of a popular Vietnam war novel.
As Kirk Lazarus, Downey takes on a daring task of portraying a Russell Crowe-like Australian actor so committed to his role of a black soldier that he has his skin surgically dyed to play the role. Downey steals just about every scene he’s in along with Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino a rapper-turned actor who is constantly offended by Lazarus’ staying-in-character during the shoot. If this may seem offensive to some, Stiller’s Tugg Speedman had just recently starred in a dramatic film called “Simple Jack,” playing a mentally challenged farmer whose performance is a favorite of the drug cartel who will soon hold Speedman captive in the jungle.
Then there is Jack Black’s character of Jeff Portnoy, a heroin-addicted comedy star who is best known for his series of film comedies where flatulence takes center stage. Black handles most of the low-brow humor in the film but with his usual charm that makes it all somehow tolerable.
But “Tropic Thunder” is much more then a parody of war films, Stiller also lets loose on actors, agents, managers, studio heads, writers, directors and anyone else he can think of along the way. Tom Cruise makes a hilarious unbilled appearance in the film as a vulgar, grotesque studio head who will no doubt appear all too real to those who work in the industry.
Steve Coogan plays Damien Cockburn the British director in over his head in trying to bring this big budget war film to the screen. Cockburn’s exit early in the film is graphically disturbing yet undeniably funny. For Stiller, who grew up in Hollywood as the son of actor/comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, he must have had plenty of background experiences to draw from in lampooning the self-absorbed culture of tinsel town and it’s players.
For fans of “Platoon”, “Apocalypse Now”, “Full Metal Jacket” and the “Missing in Action” franchise, “Tropic Thunder” is a feast. Many scenes in “Thunder” are directly inspired from those in the aforementioned films. And if you’ve ever seen “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker‘s Apocalypse,” the documentary shot by Francis Ford Coppola’s wife, Eleanor about the making of “Apocalypse Now”, you’ll know where Stiller got most of his inspiration.
“Tropic Thunder” is reminiscent of Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” a perfect parody of an often-made film genre, but with plenty of vulgar and equal opportunity offensive humor to go around. Stiller has a keen eye for mocking the industry he grew up in and a fearless attitude in it’s presentation. “Tropic Thunder” is not for everyone, it will offend some and make most others laugh. I know I laughed a lot during the film’s 107 minutes but felt equally as bad for doing so at times.
Ben Stiller Movies

Unlikely Hero!

Will Smith returned to movie theaters this past 4th of July weekend proving once again that he, along with fireworks and backyard barbeques are essential to celebrating our nation’s birthday. “Hancock” is an unlikely superhero careless in his execution of superhuman deeds and miserable in his own life filled with public drunkenness and foulmouthed exchanges with the public he is charged to protect. Will Smith has a blast portraying the title role of John Hancock, who is as clueless to the origins of his own special powers as those mere mortals around him. His penchant for destroying millions of dollars worth of public property while trying to save those in peril have finally caught up with him at the film’s opening. The news media (including Nancy Grace) have called for his arrest for outstanding warrants for the millions in damages he has caused for the tax payers of Los Angeles. After inadvertently saving the life of PR man Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Hancock is forced to give into Ray’s attempts to reinvent the disgraced superhero’s public persona. Those efforts lead to much of the first hour of the film’s comic genius at times turning the formula of the superhero genre completely over on it’s head. Hancock’s short temper and often crude sense of justice make his attempt to clean up his act not only difficult but extremely entertaining for the audience. Through most of the film, director Peter Berg borrows from Richard Donner’s Superman playbook in attempting to give “Hancock” a realistic look or what Donner called his use of verisimilitude in making an unbelievable story believable. Berg’s Hancock is a superhero whose actions have consequences something that even Donner failed to realize in his classic 1978 Superman film. After a short stint in prison, the reinvented Hancock appears on the scene to stop a bank heist, during which echoes of John William’s Superman march can be heard ever so slightly in composer John Powell’s less bombastic approach to scoring of a superhero movie. It’s only in the second half of the film’s short 92 minute running time that things bog down as the superhero’s origin is somewhat explained. When Ray’s wife, Mary (Charlize Theron) cast doubt on Hancock’s ability to reinvent himself, we later learn that her concern for her husband and son are not the only interest she has in mind. This complicated relationship with the film’s star leads to a most unexpected plot surprise which although welcomed tends to interrupt the rhythm of the film to a fault. What started as a unique and fresh take on the superhero film genre slowly evolves into a conventional comic book style story. The short running time and likeability of it’s star manage to keep it from completely falling apart. Smith who provided last year’s sci-fi thrill-ride in “I Am Legend,” once again through charm and pure onscreen charisma delivers the goods in this tailor-made role. One only hopes that although the film’s ending leaves plenty of room for a continuing franchise of sequels, that the capable star will deliver more challenging roles that have lead to his two Oscar nominations in years past.

Kung Fu Fighting Panda

Kung Fu Panda is the latest offering from the animation wing at Dreamworks studios, who in the past brought us the likes of "Shrek" and last year's "Bee Movie." "Panda" steers clear of the pop-culture references that permeated those other animated tales in favor of a more traditional story this time around with a lovable flawed character at it's center. Jack Black's Po, a Kung Fu loving Panda in the Valley of Peace, is part Curly Howard, Spanky McFarland and Elmer Fudd all wrapped up in a fuzzy Panda Bear costume, albeit a digital one. The animation is at times breathtaking, coupled with a sweeping music score by John Powell and Hans Zimmer, but at the core of the film lies a touching and funny performance by it's star, Black. Jack Black is no stranger to animation, having voiced Lenny in 2004's "Shark Tale," but he's grown as an actor since then and his Po stirs both pathos and belly-laughs (quite literally). Po works in his father's noodle shop, Mr. Ping (voiced by the prolific Asian actor James Hong) but all the while dreams of his heroes "the furious five," a collection of Kung Fu warriors voiced by the likes of Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan to name a few. After a hilarious hi jinks accident, Po is mistakenly chosen as the "Dragon Warrior," and is enlisted to battle the film's bad guy, the dreaded Tai Lung. A fallen hero in the body of a white tiger with an axe to grind, Tai Lung is voiced ferociously by English actor, Ian McShane. Po of course has no formal martial arts training, but with the help of Dustin Hoffman's Shifu, a "Jedi-like" master, Po is trained in the ways of the great warriors. Po's journey is a touching one. He doubts himself at first as does master Shifu, but when Po's stop-at-nothing penchant for finding food is discovered, the old master finds the key to training this most unlikely of warriors. The martial arts fighting sequences are often reminiscent of the old Warner Brother's cartoons, where no one gets hurt when falling great distances and suffering such violent brawling, but it's all for laughs and completely harmless. And laughs are frequent and genuine thanks to Po's narcissism and self-doubt and just being so darn lovable. Black finds funny little asides that are animated quite realistically by a team of animators listed at the films end who all deserve credit for the final performance. The relationship between Hoffman's Shifu, Hong's Mr. Ping and Po respectfully, is completely believable and often touching. Po is completely honest in his own way, and his constant efforts to please make him all the more likable. With fine direction by animators-turned directors, John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, Panda paints a broad portrait in beautiful wide-screen of an ancient Chinese world inhabited entirely by animals prevalent in Asian culture. Even it's closing credits are beautifuly animated all to the sounds of 1974s "Kung Fu Fighting," sung here by Cee-Lo Green and Jack Black. Written by a team of writers with backgrounds in TVs "King of the Hill" and martial arts films like "Bulletproof Monk," it's story may seem simplistic and not one hundred percent original, but it takes you in hook, line and sinker thanks to charming and credible performances by it's stars. I found myself laughing hardily throughout right along with the dozens of kids-of-all-ages who also found it's title character irresistible.