Ben Stiller's second chance
Posted: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00 AM by Paige Newman
Filed Under:
Movies
I really need a good laugh. I need the kind of laugh that makes your stomach and jaws hurt; the kind that surprises you by how strong it is. So far this year, only “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” provided real movie-theater laughs. Yes, there were sweet chuckles in “WALL-E” and conspiratorial snickers in “Iron Man,” and even guilty-pleasure giggles in “Sex and the City,” but nothing has made me spill my popcorn yet – and I need to drop that $6 bucket some time real soon.
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Paramount
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“Tropic Thunder” (opening Wednesday, Aug. 13) feels like my best bet for laughs this summer. Last week a mockumentary about the making of the film called “Rain of Madness” surfaced on the Web (be aware: this video contains bad language and Steve Coogan’s naked rear end). The mock is a takeoff on George Hickenlooper’s “Hearts of Darkness,” the documentary of the making of “Apocalypse Now” (which is well worth renting).
And yes, “Rain of Madness” is certainly Paramount’s way of marketing “Tropic Thunder,” but, hey, more power to them for realizing that if you put something original and funny up on the Internet, you may actually get more people to see your movie than by simply and lazily just showing them the trailer. Since “Blair Witch,” studios have been trying to figure out how to harness Internet “buzz.” To my mind, this is the smartest attempt yet. “Rain” is funny, and that convinces me further that the movie will be funny.
And all of this comes from somebody who is not a Ben Stiller fan. Actually “not a fan” would be putting it mildly. But sometimes, even if you’ve long ago written off an actor (and in this case, he also directs), it’s time to give that person a second chance. And “Tropic Thunder” is my official second chance for Stiller. If this film makes me laugh, I will end my days of quoting David Edelstein’s old Slate review of “Starsky and Hutch,” in which he wrote, “Forget Mel Gibson, (Stiller’s Starsky) is the year's biggest bummer for the Jews: that their biggest box-office champ, apart from Jesus, is the image of angry impotence.”
But who am I really kidding? As a massive, rabid Robert Downey, Jr. fan, even if Mike Myers or Robin Williams were in this movie, I would probably end up going. Only Downey would be bold enough to portray an actor who dyes his skin in his attempt to go method while portraying an African-American character. Yes, this has the potential to be offensive. But the best comedies (“Caddyshack,” “Animal House”) take risks. The fact that there is nothing “family friendly” about “Tropic Thunder” has me grinning already.
