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Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Ben Stiller,
Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black in Tropic Thunder
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8 years ago, Alex’s wife was murdered.
Today...She e-mailed him.
TELL
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4:45, 7:20 & 10:00 Nightly
SAT & SUN MAT 2:00
NR
Recent and archival interview, news, war and music
footage, which often juxtapose the Vietnam and Iraq
conflicts, round out this unflinching,
well-constructed picture. —G. Goldstein, L.A. Times
CSNY Déjà Vu
A FILM BY
NEIL YOUNG
7:40 & 9:45 Nightly
SAT MAT 2:50
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R
FINAL WEEK!
Brideshead Revisited
5:00 Nightly SUN MAT 2:15
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FRI THRU TUES ONLY
*THE HOUSE BUNNY PG13
12:20, 3:00, 5:35, 8:10, 10:40
*DEATH RACE R
1:00, 3:50, 7:10, 9:55
*THE LONGSHOTS PG
12:15, 2:50, 5:20, 7:50, 10:20
*THE ROCKER PG13
12:05, 2:45, 5:25, 8:05, 10:45
*MIRRORS R
12:30, 3:05, 6:45, 9:30
*STAR WARS: THE CLONE
WARS PG
12:10, 2:55, 4:25, 5:30, 8:05,
9:55, 10:35
*TROPIC THUNDER R
12:55, 2:30, 3:45, 5:15, 6:55, 8:00,
9:40, 10:45
*PINEAPPLE EXPRESS R
1:55, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20
CIRQUE DE SOLEIL DELIR-
IUM NR
ONLY ON SAT 8/23 & SUN 8/24
AT 2 PM
PG-13
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SISTERHOOD OF THE
TRAVELING PANTS 2 PG13
1:30, 7:00
THE MUMMY: TOMB OF
THE DRAGON EMPEROR
PG13
12:50, 3:50, 6:50, 9:50
THE DARK KNIGHT PG13
12:25, 2:10, 3:40, 6:15, 7:05,
9:45, 10:40
MAMMA MIA! PG13
1:50, 4:45, 7:40, 10:25
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER
OF THE EARTH 3D PG
12:00, 2:30*(EXCEPT SAT 8/23 &
SUN 8/24), 5:00, 7:30, 10:00
HANCOCK PG13
7:15, 9:45
WALL-E G
1:35, 4:15
Cinéarts
BOTTLE SHOCK PG13
12:45, 3:25, 7:05, 9:50
Actors provide the hell in this jungle
X-FILES: I WANT TO
BELIEVE PG13
12:00, 2:25, 4:50, 7:35, 10:25
KUNG FU PANDA PG
11:05, 12:15, 1:45, 2:45, 4:00,
5:20, 6:45, 7:50, 9:30, 10:05
YOU DON’T MESS WITH
THE ZOHAN PG13
11:50, 4:15, 7:25, 10:10
SEX AND THE CITY R
11:35, 7:15
THE LOVE GURU PG13
3:10, 10:20
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN
ARMY PG13
11:30, 12:40, 2:15 3:30, 5:30,
6:55, 8:20, 9:40
WANTED R
11:20, 1:55, 4:35, 7:45, 10:15
IRON MAN PG13
11:10, 12:30, 2:05, 3:45, 5:10,
7:00, 8:10, 9:50
THE CHRONICLES OF
NARNIA: PRINCE CAS-
PIAN PG
11:15, 2:55, 6:50, 9:55
SPACE CHIMPS G
11:45, 2:35, 5:00, 7:10, 9:20
THIS WEEKEND CELEBRATE
ANOTHER GREAT
AMERICAN VICTORY!
“HUGELY
ENTERTAINING!”
-P ETER T RAVERS , ROLLING STONE
“YOU ARE GOING TO
LOVE THIS MOVIE!”
-P ETE H AMMOND , HOLLYWOOD.COM
“GREAT
ENTERTAINMENT.”
-R OGER E BERT , CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
“‘ROCKY’ FOR WINE
AFICIONADOS.”
-S TEPHEN F ARBER , THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
★★★★ !
“
MARVELOUS…ADD
TO YOUR MUST-SEE LIST!”
-R EX R EED , THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
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A TRUE TALE OF LOVE, VICTORY
AND FERMENTATION.
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Get Your War On
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Times For 8/22 - 8/24
©2008
TROPIC THUNDER : Directed by Ben Stiller.
Written by Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller and Etan
Cohen. Cinematography, John Toll. Music, Theodore
Shapiro. Editor, Greg Hayden. Starring Ben Stiller,
Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Steve Coogan, Jay
Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Danny McBride and
Nick Nolte. DreamWorks, 2008. 107. R. 44441
I
n the running time of Tropic Thunder,
it’s extraordinarily rare that you’ll hear
a woman speak. There are no real parts
for women in this Hollywood satire, and
that, like the fi lm’s every offense, is the
point: There are few real parts for women
in general, let alone in sort of testosterone-
dipped war movie that’s — in theory
— being made in the movie-within-the-
movie here (I think I’ve left out another
“within a movie”; Tropic Thunder has as
many layers as Tristram Shandy).
But the omission of women is one of this
fi lm’s more subtle jabs. More obvious satire
comes from the actor-types starring in Tropic
Thunder (the movie within the movie): Tugg
Speedman (Ben Stiller), a waning action star
trying to reboot his career with a serious war
movie; Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), a comedian
trying to prove there’s more to him than fart
jokes and fat suits; and Kirk Lazarus (Robert
Downey Jr.), an Australian Method actor so
determined to play the part of Lincoln Osiris,
one of the group’s two black members, that
he undergoes “repigmentation.” As Osiris,
Lazarus speaks in a deepened, gravelly voice,
but his idea of an authentic black character
seems based not on actual men, but on other
fi lm and TV characters played by black men.
(It’s a careful line Downey Jr. walks, but
his nuanced, funny performance makes the
role a brief history of Hollywood and race,
from the blackface his character suggests to
today’s less overt failures of casting.)
Tropic Thunder is behind schedule. Its
director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan),
can’t control his actors. At the suggestion of
Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), on whose
memoir the fi lm is based, Cockburn takes
his actors deep into the (camera-rigged)
jungle in an attempt to get better work out
of them. Everything goes to hell, the actors
can’t understand when they’re not required
to be in character, and an Asian (no one’s
quite sure which country they’re in) drug
factory is between them and home.
Tropic Thunder is both a ridiculously
budgeted war movie and a mockery of such,
but most of the mockery in Stiller’s fi lm
(written with fellow actor Justin Theroux
and Etan Cohen) is directed straight at the
egos and vanity of actors, producers, agents
and other moviemaking folk. These stars
are self-centered wrecks; they do things for
the accolades and cannot comprehend why
their decisions are offensive. (Speedman’s
attempt at Serious Acting crashed and
burned; Lazarus’ explanation for this —
“You never go full retard” — is, like much
in the fi lm, both terribly uncomfortable and
viciously funny; its true targets are Oscar-
baiting actors like Lazarus himself). Alpa
Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a hip hop
mogul branching out with his role in the
fi lm, takes Lazarus to brilliant, brutal task
for his offensive role (he’s the only one who
appears to notice that it should have gone
to an actual black actor), but he’s got his
own schtick going on. The only grounded
person in the bunch is Kevin Sandusky (Jay
Baruchel), a newbie actor who may just
not have been in the biz long enough to get
corrupted. Yet.
Tropic Thunder meanders a bit as it treks
through the jungle (Hawaii standing in for
Southeast Asia). The fi lm is preceded by fake
previews that are scathing commentaries on
the sort of movies they advertise, but they
also serve to illustrate Stiller’s strength:
short, pointed, compact send-ups. Not every
notion in Tropic can take being drawn out,
and at times the plot is nothing more than
a way to get from one farcical scenario
to another. But more often than not, the
destination is worth it, the laughter well-
earned. Sure, there’s a bit of skepticism
required when a major studio releases a
fi lm that oh-so-cleverly sends up the exact
things that let it rake in the dough. But
Tropic Thunder is almost brazen enough —
almost discomfi ting enough, at times — to
convince you it isn’t just patting itself on the
back for recognizing what’s wrong with the
world from whence it comes. Almost. ew
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