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Tropic Thunder
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)


7.1

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 282 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Zoolander

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material

Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Jay Baruchel, Matt Levin, Andrea De Oliveira, Reggie Lee, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Cruise

Tropic Thunder is an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the most expensive war film. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Comedy \| War
WRITTEN BY:	Ben Stiller Justin Theroux Etan Cohen
DIRECTED BY:	Ben Stiller
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 18, 2008 Theatrical: August 13, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	107 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The movie is laugh-until-your-stomach-hurts hilarious.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

It's raunchy, outspoken -- and also a smart and agile dissection of art, fame, and the chutzpah of big-budget productions.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

An imperfect work of genius, a satire of Hollywood excess and vanity that dares to tread territory laden with minefields.

Newsweek David Ansen

Tropic Thunder is the funniest movie of the summer--so funny, in fact, that you start laughing before the film itself has begun.

Slate Dana Stevens

If you go see Tropic Thunder this weekend, don't be late. The four fake ads that open the movie are perhaps the apex of its considerable comic invention.

Premiere Eric Kohn

From Downey Jr.'s purposely racist embodiment of African-American anachronisms to Black's scatological humor, everything in Tropic Thunder qualifies as satire, not spoof. It's an important distinction. Pauline Kael once noted that "unlike satire, spoofing has no serious objectives; it doesn't attack anything that anyone could take seriously; it has no cleansing power."

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

If you wait through the credits, you get one last joke in the fine print: The actors shot the whole movie in Hawaii, on the fabulously lush island of Kauai. So while they were shooting a story about indulged prima donnas, they were working themselves in one of the most tourist-friendly spots on Earth. You've gotta smile at that.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

When it's all over, you'll probably have the fondest memories of Robert Downey Jr.'s work. It's been a good year for him, this one coming after "Iron Man." He's back, big time.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A knockout of a comedy that keeps you laughing constantly. It's also killer smart, lacing combustible action with explosive gags.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Maybe Stiller just seems stilted because he's the only one here who isn't playing to the rafters.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Stiller manages his movie nicely so that all actors get their share of the comic spotlight. Seldom does an ensemble comedy not contain a single weak character or performance as does this one.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The history of filmmakers skewering Hollywood's darker excesses is a long and rich one, from Billy Wilder through Robert Altman. With Tropic Thunder, a rude, crude, over-the-top satire about rude, crude, over-the-top action movies, Ben Stiller makes an ambitious and surprisingly effective bid to join those vaunted ranks.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Instead of entering the jungle to find the heart of darkness, Stiller (the director, co-star, and co-writer of Tropic Thunder) goes in to take aim at the Achilles heel of Hollywood: its utter pomposity and self-importance.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Fairly lightweight, going after targets we can all agree deserve the needle. But there are five, six, seven gags you've never seen before -- real surprises- -- and the film deploys them smartly to keep you laughing and unsteady for the duration.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Cruise is downright scary. It's the creepiest -- and most entertaining -- performance since his unforgettable appearance in that Scientology video.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Biting as it tries to be, Tropic Thunder is mostly toothless. Its targets – Hollywood vanity, Hollywood tantrums – are easy hits.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Basically a mega-budget war movie that makes fun of mega-budget war movies.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

At its best, Tropic Thunder wrings divine madness from wretched excess.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Despite its contradictions, the film stayed with me after I left the theater. It's frivolous. But it's also powerfully surreal.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

In the end Tropic Thunder is an expensive goof about an expensive goof, and the results are very impressive and fancy-looking.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Downey is absurdly funny.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Tropic Thunder understands movies, understands the system in which they are created and, most of all, knows what it takes to make an audience roar with laughter.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Raunchy, raucous and riotously funny.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

There is genuine humor and palpable satiric intent underneath the waves of unnerving bad taste and political incorrectness.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Although this satire of Hollywood inanity isn't the comic classic it could have been, Downey's gonzo performance is a must-see.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

All over the map, but it's worth enduring the botched gags, formula plotting, and even the racism to marvel at the genius of Robert Downey Jr.

Time Richard Corliss

Those opening trailers are hilarious and devastatingly acute, but the rest of Stiller's film could be more a deconstruction of comedy than a display of it. The brain gets the joke; the ribs are untickled.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

To top everything off, Tom Cruise may just have resurrected his career with the role of Les Grossman.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Some of the writing is very smart, its strain of show-business satire is dead-on and often hilarious, and some of the performances have an insanity and intensity reminiscent of "Dr. Strangelove."

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The frustratingly uneven comedy Tropic Thunder has moments of full-on, bust-a-gut hilarity, along with long stretches where you can hear the crickets chirping in the theater.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Apart from startling, out-there comic turns by Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise, however, the antics here are pretty thin, redundant and one-note.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Never lives up to the hilarity of the opening, partly because the large-scale production smothers the gags but mostly because those gags are so easy to smother.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Like this summer's other slapstick cause célèbre, "Pineapple Express," it's a comedy with as high or higher a body count as the movies it purports to be parodying, and the problem isn't the violence per se but rather the fact that neither movie ever finds a satisfactory balance between tongue-in-cheek and guts-in-hand.

Empire Dan Jolin

There are moments of comedy grandeur, but this isn't as consistently funny as you'd hope. Nevertheless, Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus is instantly up there with the comedy greats.

Wall Street Journal Joanne Kaufman

Like a dinner whose hors d'oeuvres are far more satisfying and well-composed than the slightly warmed-over main course. Among them are the inspired mock movie trailers and the fake ad that precede "Thunder's" opening credits.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The over-all effect is bizarre, daring you to be amused by something both brilliant and bristling with offense; if you sidle out at the end, feeling half guilty at what you just conspired in, then Stiller has trapped you precisely where he wants you.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Tropic Thunder is an assault in the guise of a comedy – watching it is like getting mugged by a clown.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

That's the thing about satire: It doesn't play past its expiration date. And everything about Tropic Thunder already feels antiquated.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

A flashy, nasty, on-and-off funny and assaultive sendup of the film industry.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 282 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

georgue s gave it a9:
Straight up hilarious!

Simple Ben gave it a0:
The imitation trailer idea was stolen from Tarantino's 'Grindhouse' and they were all stupid anyway. Stiller jus threw down a bunch of jokes for 14 yr olds and retreaded criticsm of the filmaking industry with a parody of the business and Vietnam war movies while he was at it. The product is shallow characters stumbling through an incomprehensible plot distracted by a lot of gasoline explosions making you wonder what the hell is the point. Anyway Stiller gets to fan his vanity and show us he's been working out.

gil n gave it a0:
Tropic Thunder was a cheap remake of Galaxy Quest. All they did was go from space to the jungle. Next it will be some actors from Lost getting kidnapped onto a real island full of Gilligan girls and dinosauers and giant apes. If copyright laws were tighter Tropic Thunder would be another infringement case. Goes to show that big shot Hollywood types are not so talented after all.

Robert T gave it a5:
This movie was not in the least bit as fnny as it is made out to be. Seriously the only funny thing in the movie is Jack Black's character. That was hilarious. If someone thinks his movie is intelligent then they are insane. I really did not like the lame attempt at laugs, especially Robert Downy Jr.'s character and also Ben Stillers character was incredibly unfunny. Overall is if you want to see a dumb, mostly unfunny comedy then you should watch it, bu why waste your time.

[Anonymous] gave it a7:
A funny comedy and nothing more. I did like the performances of Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., and Tom Cruise was the best part. He made me laugh like crazy. But I gave it only a seven because of the horrid story and Ben Stiller, whom I normally like.

David W. gave it a10:
Best Film of the year. How did this not win best picture. Comedies deserve more credit. This movie was incredibly intelligent. It is sad that some are not intelligent enough to realize this.

Tropic Thunder DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)

Tropic Thunder
DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount)