Tropic Thunder

This film is being released in a triple disc DVD, an excessive and self-indulgent move more than appropriate to the main feature. Operating under the ethos of James Cameron that “more is more”, Ben Stiller directs a frat pack love-in which, like his earlier Zoolander, works reasonably well as a broad comedy, but is utterly gumsy as a satire. In this instance, the target is Hollywood, but while the opening trailers rival anything from Grindhouse for spot-on hilarity, the following two hours (far too long for a comedy) are only sporadically funny. Essentially a Saturday Night Live spoof of the making of Apocalypse Now, the film has too much money, too much talent and not enough discipline. Tom Cruise’s unctuous cameo hardly helps, while the only offensive thing about Downey’s character gimmick is how lazily modish it is. Amongst the detritus, however, there’s the effortlessly hysterical Jack Black, a bumbling Steve Coogan and Nick Nolte just being, well… Nick Nolte.