Tropic Thunder

Unfortunately, Ben Stiller's sense of humor is in a world of its own, where Stiller is amused at the almost-humorous. I only mildly enjoyed this picture, for brief periods. It is meant to be an over the top satire, and it is certainly manages that, in most cases. Some of the situations were a bit funny, but there was not enough real humor here to quell the queasy feeling over much of the dialog (not for minors) and the failed attempts at humor. Jack Black gets saddled with the worst of it. I also don't believe it works as in insider view of the movie business, because nothing new is revealed beyond what is already common knowledge. In a way it is just Zoolander as a "Movie Star", rather than a male model. Obviously you can be bone dumb in either profession and still be successful. I think Robert Downey Jr. does a good imitation of Russel Crowe playing a black man, but that's not really worth the price of admission. Although I liked Tom Cruise as the crude studio executive with his "Smithers" yes-man ...no, sorry, I can't recommend Tropic Thunder.