Tropic Thunder

Thank goodness, a comedy this year that lived up to the hype (excluding Forgetting Sarah Marshall, best comedy of 08 so far) , what surpassed my disappointment from Stepbrothers and Pineapple Express was Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, not only starring in, but directing an all star cast joined by Jack Black, Robert Downey, Jr., Nick Nolte, Matthew McCounaghey (as movie agent Rick Peck) and Tom Cruise, yes I said Tom Cruise.

In Tropic Thunder, film director Damien Cogburn, played by Hamlet 2's Steve Coogan, teams action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), the Farley-esque comic Jeff Portnoy (Black) and the 5-time academy award winning Kirk Lazarus (Downey) to make the greatest war movie ever.

When filming goes awry, Cogburn is convinced by the writer of Tropic Thunder, 4-Leaf Tayback, played by Nick Nolte, that in order to make the movie the right way, he must send his actors out into the action and experience real life combat while being filmed by hidden cameras.

What the actors may think is a movie, becomes reality, when dropped in what they think is Vietnam, they encounter the heroin producing gang, Flaming Dragon. From there the actors are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

In my view, the movie never missed a comedic beat, Stiller and Black were at their comic best, but I got to say they pailed in comparison to Downey's portrayal of Sgt. Lincoln O'Sirus, simply put, he pulled off playing a black guy while his character Lazarus was Australian, unbelievably brilliant, and an interesting transition from his role in Ironman.

Oh and back to Tom Cruise, now I've never really been a Tom Cruise fan, in fact the only movie of his that I own is Collateral and he wasn't really the lead actor in that movie. But his performance has portly studio executive Les Grossman, all I got to say is WOW! I didn't think he had it in him and I saw Cruise in a whole new light.

Stiller, I got to say is a great director, too bad he's hasn't directed many movies of late, but with one of my personal favorites Zoolander, and Tropic Thunder. Hopefully, Stiller will be at the helm of many comic hits to come.

Now a first for Reel Review, a solo movie review, a duo movie review and a trio movie review giving you their opinions of Tropic Thunder.

1. Tyler Knauth (14 years old)

2. Chase Bennett (15 years old) and Chelsea Wegrzyniak (15 years old).

3. Megan Wright (15 years old), Robert W. Resner, Jr (14 years old) and Skyler Darkes (13 years old).