Tropic Thunder is a brilliant movie

I saw this the other day with Kat, and it was a great movie. Honestly. It takes a really critical look at movie stars and their self-centered Narcissism. Up until this year, I really wasn't that much of a Robert Downey, Jr. fan, but I am now. His portrayal of the drunk, self-tortured Iron Man was something I thought was just a wonderful fluke. His character in Tropic Thunder completely steals a movie that was so good that I never would have thought anyone could have stolen it.

The funny thing (well, one of many things) about Tropic Thunder is that there is this whole protest thing going on because Downey's character refers to Ben Stiller's character's previous role as "Simple Jack" by accusing him of having gone "Full Retard". Of course, the mentally-challenged corps have come out in droves to protest this usage, but the joke isn't even on them. The joke has nothing to do with the mentally-challenged, nor does it even make a slight at them by using the word "retard". The insult is waged at actors who play mentally-challenged characters, like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, or Dustin Hoffman in Rainman, or even Sean Penn in Sam I Am (or something close to that). It's actually a brilliant criticism of actors and how they handle such roles. There's a lot of self-directed criticism in this movie that the main characters continue to use to poke fun at their own profession. Some of the ad libs in the movie are brilliant, and are done so well that you'd think it was originally written into a well-written script.

I highly recommend this movie.

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