Tropic Thunder (2008)

USA 121m, Colour
Director: Ben Stiller; Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey

Tropic Thunder is a hilarious satire of the making of an American mega-blockbuster action movie. The three principal characters, played by Black, Downey and Stiller play fictional Hollywood stars who are given crazy back stories which add to the cleverness of the screenplay. While Black and Stiller give great performances, it is Robert Downey Jr. who steals practically every scene he’s in while playing the incredibly versatile Kirk Lazarus, an Australian actor who can’t break character in the role of Sergeant Lincoln Osiris after undergoing controversial skin pigment augmentation. The dialogue and physical comedy are incredibly funny as their action film gets “real” after Stiller’s character, Tugg Speedman is held hostage by a drug lord’s gang in the jungle (Klaus Ming April 2009).