Thunder Skewers Hollywood

It’s not often that we see an industry submit itself to the hack vulgarity of examined self recrimination and blue collar guffaws. For example, we’ll never see Detroit point out, with reserved chuckles, how isolated they are from reality and how many years it’s going to take for them to get their pants back up from around their ankles. We’ll never be privy to a journalistic Q & A with a Wall Street mogul who’ll describe, with coy embarrassment the disgusting greed that powers their business. This comic honesty is the charm of the Hollywood-centric “Tropic Thunder”.

While shooting a Vietnam era war film, the director, who has his professional neck and other parts of his anatomy on the line, becomes convinced that the only way to get the best from his crew of bratty thespians is to drop them in the middle of the jungle where they will be forced to face reality. Through a series of mishaps the actors become entangled in a real-life struggle with a gang of Asian drug runners. Of course high-jinks ensue - that’s what happens when there’s mishaps. And, while the high-jinks are regular movie stuff there’s enough here to keep you laughing as you watch the skewering of almost all the typecast “types” that we know and love.

The lampooning of Hollywood begins before the film starts and it doesn’t end until the end with what is the best cameo of the year by Tom Cruise. As stellar as this Cruise bit is it is outdone by the whining, drug-binging, narcissistic, pseudo-philosophic actors Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) who have become caricatures of themselves in the illusory maze of Hollywoodland.

“Tropic Thunder” is funny and if I critique anything too harshly it’s the third act of the film where the plot bogs down becoming entangled in it’s own story. It’s at this point where the protagonist’s must begin to redeem themselves so that we’ll cheer them in the end. This is handled in much the same manner as many Hollywood films and it becomes just another Talladega Nights. But, it does redeem itself and pull out of a complete nosedive to give us more Hollywood hosing right at the end.

Not a recommend for a full-price night viewing, but this is a good ride to catch on a hot afternoon.

The Darkest Knight

*****

The death of Heath Ledger has been widely exaggerated. He is alive, well and compellingly grotesque in the latest Batman encounter: The Dark Knight.

I attended an early morning screening of this film the first day knowing that the nationwide midnight screening had already exceeded the record of $16 million set by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. Over $17 million and counting. But could it be that good? I sat watching reels of future attractions thinking about Ledger and wondering if Jack Nicholson was going to the movies today. I fantasized that he had a private showing at his home, and wondered how he would feel after seeing one of his greatest roles pirated by this young, very capable actor. Leaving the theater I have to believe that Jack felt just like I did. “Holy crap! Heath Ledger will live forever as Joker.”

Writer/director Christopher Nolan’s vision of a darker yet more human, complex Batman continues with this film. Christian Bale as Batman often trades personal asides with Alfred, his butler played by Michael Caine, while Gary Oldman as Police Chief Gordan supports the honest, hardworking D.A. Harvey Dent and his assistant D.A. Rachael Dawes played by Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal, respectively. Finally there’sLucius Fox, friend and Batman gear specialist played by Morgan Freeman. Quite a cast, and yet without Ledger’s performance, this Batman is just another guy with a cape.

The interesting development here is that The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, both Nolan films, seem to indicate that Nolan has figured out what many in Hollywood still grapple with. You can have the best special effects and if there’s no human story alive in your film, it’s not going to reach an audience. This Batman not only reaches the audience but reaches into the audience bringing to light the close interconnectivity between good and evil … and after all that’s what Batman has always been about. While Joker is cruel and unusually deranged there is a specific logic to his madness drawing the hero close to the edge. But, this is Batman and he is here to show us that the defining human characteristic is knowing the difference between right and wrong.

This is not a movie for kids. It’s violent and Ledger is completely taken with the malevolence of his part. It is, hands down, the very best of the comic genre films and will live as a testament to Ledger’s brilliant, but short life. If you want to see the Oscar performance of the year, go see this.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Numbskull

I don’t often write a review on films I don’t like. I don’t see the point of being negative unless, like warning someone there are alligators in the pool, I’m going to save them from a bad ending. Well, that’s what I’m going to do here today, save you from a bad ending. And a bad beginning. And pitifully everything between those two points.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens without the startling energy of the past films in this franchise. It runs it’s paces from overdone mawkish, stopping to point fingers back to it’s past glories - as if collective amnesia requires this to connect us to the story - to a dawdling velocity that nearly put me to sleep before we were half-way through the second act. This film has made somewhere in the neighborhood of $650,000,000.00 worldwide, and I can’t figure out why. Maybe it’s me? Maybe I’m the only one who likes a good, fresh story idea. I don’t think so.

The problem with what I like to refer to as the “Crystal Numbskull” is that there’s no story. When I first heard this final episode was to be made I worried about hauling Ford out, dusting him off and plopping his signature hat back onto his receding hairline. Then I learned Karen Allen would return to the dueling female position. I figured at least they weren’t going to strip Harrison of all grace by matching him with a twenty-something heroine. With the addition of Cate Blanchett as Dr. Irina Spalko, more evil than Boris and Natasha combined, I was assured the protagonist would have an equally robust villainess. Finally, with direction by Spielberg and story by Lucas I just knew this was going to be the best Indiana Jones ever.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the box office. What should have been the best story in this franchise ends up being a compilation of past history. The acting is what it should be for this genre and Harrison is not made to look silly, but the from the opening, where the dialogue is truly exhausted from overuse to the end of the film where overactive CGI blows the underground kingdom to Kingdom Come, we’ve seen it all and heard it all before. If you want to see this movie wait until it comes out in DVD. Better yet, rather than drop another penny into the gross income statement just pull out your video copy of Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and watch that again and remember with satisfaction … how wonderful it was.