3 posts categorized "Buddy Movie"

October 23, 2023

TROPIC THUNDER — SHOCKTOBER!

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ColeSmithey.comSearch and Destroy Comedy
Stiller and Company Launch More Than F-Bombs
By Cole Smithey

A heady blend of outrageous Grand Guignol comic set pieces and fast-twitch dialogue, "Tropic Thunder" walks a fine line of dangerous satire that straddles gallows humor and bawdy pop-culture inflected slapstick. In the midst of filming an "Apocalypse Now"-styled movie an overzealous crew squander a multi-million dollar explosion thereby forcing director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) to plant cameras and explosives in an area of a Southeast Asian jungle for the cast to perform a low-budget reality version of the script.

Top 10 Raunchiest Comedy Moments - Movie Review / Film Essay

Action-movie-has-been Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), goofball comedy star/heroin addict Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), hip-hop pretty boy Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and nerdy Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) make up the cast of war movie stereotypes. Aside from some scene-stealing by Tom Cruise as a bald and fat Hollywood producer prone to cursing a blue streak, Robert Downey Jr. owns the movie with his comically layered performance as an actor who underwent skin pigmentation treatment in order to play an African American soldier. Downey’s performance will go down in cinema history as one of the most ridiculous yet comically effective experiments of the decade.

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The movie opens with a series of hilarious parody commercials that identify each of the main "actors" involved in the film-inside-the-film. An Alpa Chino blurb for an energy drink called "Booty Sweat" goes so far into hip-hop culture’s one-track obsession for poontang as to be cathartic. A Tugg Speedman segment for his flagging "Scorcher" action movie franchise points up the futility of action flick sequels, and Jeff Portnoy’s fat/fart comedy movie series "Fatties" pokes in the ribs of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy for their efforts in that area of humor.

Amazon.com: Tropic Thunder : Robert Downey, Jr., Nick Nolte, David  Pressman, Amy Stiller, Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Steve Coogan, Jack Black,  Matthew McConaughey, Justin Theroux, Eric Winzenreid, Reggie Lee, Jay  Baruchel, Trieu

But it’s the sham trailer for Kirk Lazarus’ gay-themed movie "Satan’s Alley," about lust between priests in the Middle Ages, that induces howls of laughter. Tobey Maguire does cameo honors as the object of desire for Lazarus’ character, and narration by movie trailer narration specialist Don LaFontaine provides added punch to the longing stares of passion.

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The satire’s more obvious points of departure comes from movies like "Full Metal Jacket," "Rambo," and to some degree Robert Altman’s "The Player." An ironic use of archetypal war related rock songs shoots daggers at the portentous syrup of Buffalo Springfield’s "For What It’s Worth" that posits "There’s something happening here" as an objective view of a militizia-enforced society at war with itself. The outdated effect of the song is transmogrified into an irreverent post-modern joke.

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It’s a movie about the making of a war movie during an era when all bow at the altar of pop culture celebrity, making interaction between the actors hinge on experiences that are already thrice removed from reality. The brilliance of "Thunder’s" lampoonery comes across in its deeply woven threads of self-referencing character actors and deceptively offhand narrative touches that combine to form a perfect storm of comic ideas. A finely tooled supporting performance from Nick Nolte as the narcissistic Viet Nam vet on whose autobiographical book the sub-movie is based, bestows a degree of cynicism that effortlessly matches the American media’s abysmal condition.

Image gallery for Tropic Thunder - FilmAffinity

The story gets muddled as our team of impromptu soldiers attempt to rescue Tugg Speedman from his incarceration at the hand of a group of heroin purveyors led by a 12-year-old tyrant named Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo). Speedman is reduced to recreating scenes for his captors from his movie "Simple Jack," in which he played a buck-toothed retarded man. Kurk’s reprimand to Tugg for going "full retard" in a movie as a taboo that he should have known better than commit, arrives with examples from "Rain Man," "Forest Gump," and "I Am Sam." Kurt’s insider knowledge about acting rules and styles throws a bravura wink at the profession that’s wrapped up in the being of Tom Cruise’s incarnation as Hollywood mogul Les Grossman.

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The movie wraps up with Cruise doing a hip-hop-styled dance to T.I’s "U Don't Know Me" that contrasts darkly to his famous "Risky Business" underwear jig. It’s a lasting moment of sheer rebellion that puts a bow on "Tropic Thunder" as a comedy intent on searching and destroying mediocrity. It’s a movie that knows what it’s up against.

(Paramount) Rated R. 106 mins. 

4 Stars ColeSmithey.comCozy Cole

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WITHNAIL AND I — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

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LA GRANDE BOUFFE (THE BIG FEAST)ColeSmithey.comA British cult film classic seems like just the thing to break Cole and Mike out of their hangover from SHOCKTOBER! Sadly, Mike fell down in the Craft Beer department so we're pretending to drink Stella Artois for our lively discussion. Get out the cutlery, you'll need at least five pieces for episode #77. 

Bon appétit Bouffers!ColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.com 5 Stars SF SHOCKTOBER!

Cozy Cole

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June 25, 2012

LETHAL WEAPON — CLASSIC FILM PICK

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Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot pal!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

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Lethal WeaponScreenwriter Shane Black’s approach to creating unconventional characters for “Lethal Weapon” created a new template for the buddy movie genre, which dates back to the silent era of Laurel and Hardy. Under Richard Donner’s scrupulous direction, the dynamic film spawned one of modern cinema’s most durable franchises.

“Lethal Weapon” (1987) boasts an incredibly dark first act. Bobby Helms’s “Jingle Bell Rock” plays over the opening credit sequence, placing the film’s anomalous Christmastime setting in warm-weather Los Angeles.

A partially nude woman plummets to her death from a skyscraper after snorting a copious amount of drugs. We descend with her, watching the light-blurring effects of terminal velocity as certain death approaches. The young woman’s svelte body smashes onto the roof of a car. We see the roof buckle from the inside as the body hits. There is nothing holy about this holiday season.

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Mel Gibson’s LAPD undercover narcotics officer Martin Riggs contemplates suicide over a photo of his wife, who died recently in a car accident. The police department’s female shrink can’t convince the captain to take Martin Riggs out of the field due to his suicidal tendencies. “He may be psychotic,” she tells the cavalier Captain as he escapes into the seclusion of the men’s room. A battle of the sexes is raging.

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Veteran homicide detective Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) has just enjoyed his 50th birthday with his doting wife and kids when he gets assigned to partner up with the volatile Riggs. Mel Gibson’s wild-eyed performance confirms Murtaugh’s worst fears. Riggs’s eccentric way of talking down a suicidal jumper makes for one of the movie’s most iconic sequences. The jaw-dropping spectacle involved is far from gratuitous. Audiences are given numerous such opportunities over the course of the movie to extract their hearts from their mouths.

The contentious relationship between Murtaugh and Riggs makes the movie tick beneath a tale of criminal corruption that seems tame by modern standards. In a hat-tip to the Iran-Contra scandal of the '80s, Peter McAllister (Michael Ryan) is a retired military general who has repurposed his classified knowledge into running a lucrative heroin-smuggling operation. Gary Busy makes for a worthy baddie as Mr. Joshua, a sadomasochistic torturer-hitman who relishes his work.

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Gibson and Glover play so well off each other’s racially disparate characters that it’s easy to overlook the rampant racism that inundated the LAPD during the late 1980s. Murtaugh’s 16-year-old daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe) conveys a shameless crush on Riggs when he joins Murtaugh’s family for dinner. Rianne’s sensual vulnerability plants a seed of unavoidable dramatic empathy when she takes on a pivotal role later in the story.

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“Lethal Weapon” is a buddy-film that incorporates social commentary, crime drama, and comedy into a compulsively entertaining form. Murtaugh and Riggs are two cops you’d like to invite over for dinner.

Rated R. 110 mins. 

5 StarsColeSmithey.com

Cozy Cole

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