laraemeadows Blog

Under discussion:

Tropic Thunder  (2008)

Tropic Thunder is a movie about making a movie by not making a movie.  It is a wild romp through joke-infested jungles that occasionally steps on a comedy land mine. 

Director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) assembles a star studded cast of actors to grace his war movie.  Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) is the group’s action star, Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) is the drug addicted comedian, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) is the award-winning Australian actor, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) is the rabble’s rapper-turned-actor and rounding out the group is the geek Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel).  During filming the actors can’t work together, can’t get their lines out, and can’t be directed at all.  Facing pressure from the financial backer of the movie, Cockburn listens to Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the author of the book the movie is based on, and sends the group out into the jungle with no way out.  Instead of shooting a war flick gorilla style, they end up shooting guns gorilla style.

Tropic Thunder opens with a group of fake commercials and trailers.  My best guess is that it is Ben Stiller’s way of letting us get to know the characters a little better before the opening of the movie.  It is kind of a cinematic prologue.  The commercial is funny but the last trailer is by far the funniest of the opening sequence.

After the faux trailers, it takes a while for Tropic Thunder to regain that same level of comedy.  It isn’t until the team is dropped in the jungle that the audience’s patience pays off during one of the most OH MY GOD moments I’ve seen in a long time.  So stunning and surprising, it is so wrong that your laughter feels dirty, which makes it that much more hysterical. 

Jack Black probably could have been replace by any Saturday Night Live cast member, past or present, without much difference in quality.  Ben Stiller earned a couple of chuckles from me.  Robert Downey Jr. delivers lines like “Never go full retard” so seriously, it is impossible not to laugh.  Downey Jr. isn’t irreplaceable, though. 

The real stars of Tropic Thunder were the supporting actors.  Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Cruise give the rumble to Tropic Thunder.  They are so outrageous and deliver the outrageousness with such conviction, it is impossible not to believe them and nearly impossible not to laugh.

It isn’t all chuckles in Tropic Thunder.  There are times it drags jokes too far and breezes too quickly through those scenes that should linger.  The personality flaws of the characters are dull and unoriginal.   Tropic Thunder offers nothing smart under the layer of stupidity; it is just a juvenile comedy. 

Sometimes, occasionally, every so often, maybe, it’s ok to watch a movie that doesn’t challenge the mind, it just tickles the watcher a little.  Tropic Thunder tickled my funny bone. 

Tropic Thunder is a head-slapping, head-shaking comedy.  Tropic Thunder is like an unfunny uncle who tries to do funny things to make their niece laugh and those things aren’t funny but the niece can’t help but laugh at him because he is trying so hard to be funny.

If I was washing the dishes and needed some light background noise to listen to, I’d pop in Tropic Thunder.  It isn’t one I’d run out to the theater to see, but I might rent the DVD. 

Under discussion:

Man on Wire  (2008)

Man on Wire is a documentary of a man who could either be called brave or obscenely stupid, depending on your perspective; this man walked on a wire between the Twin Towers.  Man on Wire is a beautiful movie about a repulsive personality.

French tight rope walker Jean-Louis Blondeau sees the building of the twin towers as a challenge.  A challenge of his abilities, a challenge of the loyalties of those around him and a challenge of his own will.  Unconcerned with anyone but himself, Jean-Louis Blondeau chugs along, trying to make his way up the towers and across them.  In smaller acts of defiance, he walked across several important structures all over the world.  His behavior captured the attention of the people who saw them and damaged the relationships with those people he involved in his schemes.

Man on Wire’s cinematography glistens.  There are times during Man on Wire that took me out of the moment because of its beauty.  The director, James Marsh, and cinematographer, Igor Martinovich, use several different styles of shooting to create different moods.  When they are discussing how they actually performed the Twin Towers walk, the scenes are shot in black and white.  Those scenes reminded me of old robbery movies in look and feel. 

Casting person Adine Duron did a fantastic job of casting two actors who look so close to the actual people Man on Wire represented.  There are several scenes that take place in the past that aren’t of the actual heist, and those scenes are masterfully shot to look the way footage of the time would’ve looked.    Grainy and shot in 1970’s style cinematography, I was totally fooled.  I didn’t know it wasn’t actual footage from the time until I read the press notes. 

Each person involved in the wire walk was interviewed separately and given playful titles such as “The Australian” and “The Accomplice.”  The interviews go from sad to silly.  There are men with silly mustaches, hearts on the sleeves of many people and great affection.  Many of the people recall the events with a deep bitter sweet quality, except Jean-Louis Blondeau; it was all sweet to him. 

It seems the only people in his life were those willing to be focused on Jean-Louis Blondeau’s dream; willing to take the risk of crime with him or to follow his wishes explicitly.  His girlfriend at the time, Annie Allix, said she felt her dreams were unimportant to him, that only his mattered.  Even the way Blondeau recounts his story in Man on Wire is wildly self-absorbed. 

As many well made documentaries do, Man on Wire left me asking questions.  Is Jean-Louis Blondeau a great adventurer, a pusher of limits and an admirable personality because he did what no one else would do?  Were the people who followed him across from Europe to commit this crime mindless morons or were they loyal supporters who thought they were part of something great?  Was this act of walking between Twin Towers an act of greatness?  Was Annie Allix a weakling?  Is Jean-Louis Blondeau a person we should admire or someone deserving of the numerous eyerolls I gave him?  If he died during the stunt, would I languish in the sorrow of the passing of such a maverick or would I have suggested him for a Darwin Award? 

If Jean-Louis Blondeau were killed during this stunt and I witnessed it, I would feel only a welling of laughter only held back by good manners.  After I got home and allowed myself a hearty, gut busting laughter, I’d head directly to my computer and visit www.darwinawards.com for my suggested award winner. 

I appreciate the craftsmanship of Man on Wire but don’t feel nourished having actually seen Blondeau’s account himself.   Man on Wire is a well made, visually marvelous movie about a man who doesn’t deserve such attention.  If I have to hear Blondeau talk anymore, I might throw myself off The Sears Tower.