Enlightening Ignorance

I saw on CNN yesterday that people are boycotting this film. Apparently the fact that the word “retarded” is used repeatedly is offending a lot of people, which I can completely understand; but the truth is, the context in which the word was used in this film does not compare to what was done in The Ringer. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t even come close to being as offensive to the mentally handicapped as The Ringer.

For those of you who’ve never seen The Ringer, it’s about a guy (Johnny Knoxville); down on his luck; who pretends to be “retarded” so he can rig the special Olympics……enough said. That film did nothing but use the behavior of the mentally disabled as a source of comedy. Shamefull………funny………but shamefull!!!!!

Tropic Thunder is a very entertaining movie, depending on your humor. Robert Downey Jr by far gives the most memorable performance, due to his melodramatic but hilarious portrayal of a black man. Jack Black’s character is not very different than the majority of his other roles. I’ve always enjoyed Ben Stiller movies (with the exception of Zoolander), despite the fact that there’s much similarity in the way he portrays the characters in all of his leading roles. A few characters have dialogue that is over exaggerated to give the illusion of being funny, Tom Cruises’ cameo in particular. Some creative cinematography cloaks a lot of crass action scenes but the film still manages to be the best Ben Stiller has done as a director. Otherwise, I don’t think this film is intended to be taken seriously as anything other than eccentric comedy. So if you enjoy over-the-top and pervasive comedy films, then you will enjoy Tropic Thunder.

Released: Aug 2008

Run time: 1hr 47mins

Rated: R