(3.5 out of 5 stars)

Starring Ben Stiller, Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown is the 6^th in a series about a huge action guy that saves the world. Wait…sorry…not the right movie. OK, starring Jack Black as each member of the Fatties, Fatties: Fart 2 is the…wrong again. Robert Downey Jr. with a special guest star (and a do mean ‘special’) stars in Satan’s Alley about two gay monks…well, that isn’t funny at all, but it is! Tropic Thunder has fake previews right before the beginning of the movie that highlight the actors inside Tropic with their upcoming movies. They are a bit odd, a bit outlandish and a lot hilarious…and then the movie begins.

And so does this review!  If you liked what you saw in the beginning, you will likely enjoy the whole movie. It is just as outlandish as the “previews,” and I didn’t event mention the fake commercial!

This movie is 100% a spoof on Hollywood and how the director, actors, producers act selfishly, pretentiously, and absurdly. Where The Player did this in a much more serious way, Tropic Thunder ensures that it is completely absurd and hilarious. It only uses its setting of a movie crew filming a Vietnam movie in current day Vietnam as the basis for the movie. In reality, this movie has nothing to do with Vietnam. Much like Thank You for Smoking has nothing to do with cigarettes. It is all about spin. Using Vietnam is genius in the writing as the script intends on exploiting everything about Hollywood from the drugged out actor to the obsession of creating a Vietnam film.

Ben Stiller and Jack Black fit their roles fine, but except for one line here or there, Robert Downey, Jr. is the most impressive casting. He is the method actor who has a controversial operation done to make himself into a black person. He then refuses to speak his Australian self (which also is a jab at Russell Crowe) and speak as he thinks a black man speaks and acts. Just for equality and to make him even funnier, they cast an actual black guy as another part of the actors on the film. This movie definitely only works as an ensemble piece much like Anchorman. Sure Will Ferrell is funny here and there, but his character is only funny so long, it is the supporting cast that makes him funnier, and that is the same with this movie.

Do expect a lot of R rated-ness in this movie. It is not just the violence and the controversial take on a black man, Vietnam, and the much publicized mentally handicapped character, but the language is pretty harsh throughout. Many times a movie will attempt to use profanity as a joke and it ends up just being a bunch of guys spouting profanity; however, this movie uses that language to its full potential with Jack Black getting some great one liners as well as Tom Cruise doing his best impression of the language in any Tarantino film. He is hilarious.

Where Tropic fails is in its editing. The movie definitely is seeking laughs only as the script (even after 20 years of rewrites) is lacking making Stiller as director ignore unanswered lost parts and requires him to just push forward anyway. A few times he gets mired in what he thinks is funny, but it plays too long a few times where the audience just wants to get to the next great laugh.

Unfortunately, Tropic is hilarious the first time, it is not going to have replay value. There are no one-liners that can be repeated and for those that were funny, they just aren’t the type that will make its way into pop culture. Although hilarious this time around, none of these actors will be known for this movie; they have much better fare that will stand the test of time.