Tropic Thunder

 

HEADLINE:  ** Foul-Mouthed Hollywood Spoof **

Title:  TROPIC THUNDER

Quality:  * * *     Acceptability:  -3

SUBTITLES:  -- Some English subtitles --

WARNING CODES:

Language:  LLL

Violence:  VVV

Sex:  SS

Nudity:  N

 

RATING:  R

RELEASE:  August 15, 2008

TIME:  107 minutes

STARRING:  Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Steve Coogan, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride, and Brandon Soo Hoo

DIRECTOR:  Ben Stiller

PRODUCERS:  Ben Stiller, Stuart Cornfeld and Eric McLeod

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS:  Justin Theroux

WRITERS:  Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen

BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY:  N/A

DISTRIBUTOR:  DreamWorks/Paramount Pictures/Viacom

 

CONTENT:  (H, B, Ho, LLL, VVV, SS, N, A, DD, M) Light humanist worldview with some light moral elements, plus drug addict going through withdrawal offers homosexual sex to be let go, in story making fun of Hollywood; at least 185 obscenities, 19 strong profanities and three light profanities; a couple of scenes with extremely gory violence and lots of action and comic violence includes actor has arms shot off in extended scene, man finds decapitated head and lick wounds to prove that the head is a fake movie prop but it's not, gunfights, explosions, and fighting; crude references to oral sex in one scene and crude verbal references to fornication in music video with bikini-clad women; bikini clad women in one scene and upper male nudity in other scenes; alcohol use; smoking and strong references to cocaine and heroin use by one character; and, kidnapping.

 

GENRE:  Comedy/Satire

INTENDED AUDIENCE:  Older teenagers and adults

 

Please address your comments to:

 

Sumner Redstone, Chairman/CEO

Viacom

Brad Grey, Chairman/CEO

Paramount Pictures

5555 Melrose Avenue

Los Angeles, CA  90038-3197

Phone:  (323) 956-5000

Website:  www.paramount.com

 

SUMMARY:  TROPIC THUNDER stars Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, and newcomer Brandon T. Jackson as four actors making a war movie in Vietnam's jungles. A couple characters in TROPIC THUNDER are very funny, but they are laced with abundant foul language, some crude sexual references, and a smattering of extremely gory, excessive comic violence.

 

IN BRIEF:

 

TROPIC THUNDER stars Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, and newcomer Brandon T. Jackson as four actors making a war movie in Vietnam's jungles. Stiller plays action star Tugg Speedman, whose recent film about a mentally impaired farm boy bombed. Downey plays Australian actor Kirk Lazarus, an Oscar®-winning method actor who's so committed to his role as a black American soldier that he has medically changed his skin pigmentation to never break character. Black plays a drug-addicted comedy star whose specialty has been fart jokes. Finally, Jackson plays black rapper Alpa Chino who's doing his first acting gig and resents Kirk's pretense to be black. In the jungle, the pampered actors run into drug dealers, who mistake them for real soldiers.

 

Some of the characterizations in TROPIC THUNDER are funny and clever. The two best ones are Robert Downey, Jr.'s method actor and a hilarious cameo by Tom Cruise as a mean studio mogul. Jack Black, however, is surprisingly bad. Also, some of the other comedy is stupid. Rated R, the movie has more than 200 obscenities and profanities, a couple extremely gory war scenes, and some crude sexual language.

 

NOTE from Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide Magazine. For more information from a Christian perspective, order the latest Movieguide Magazine by calling 1-800-899-6684(MOVI) or visit our website at www.movieguide.org. Movieguide is dedicated to redeeming the values of Hollywood by informing parents about today's movies and entertainment and by showing media executives and artists that family-friendly and even Christian-friendly movies do best at the box office year in and year out. Movieguide now offers an online subscription to its magazine version, atwww.movieguide.org. The magazine, which comes out 25 times a year, contains many informative articles and reviews that help parents train their children to be media-wise consumers.