An early review, this film co-written and directed by Ben Stiller opens August 13th, 2008.This movie is about the making of a big-budget war-movie, where the actors get involved with real guerrillas. It's an interesting premise, and it delivers.
The funny faux-trailers at the beginning set the tone for a hilarious, but well made picture. Jack Black plays a horrible comedy actor, Ben Stiller is the action movie actor, Jay Baruchel is the young college-educated actor, Matthew McConaughey is Stiller's greasy agent and an unrecognizable Tom Cruise plays a big producer. Brandon T Jackson is the rapper turned actor. The most controversial character is Robert Downey Jr's method actor, who undergoes a skin pigment operation to appear African-American. There is an argument that could be made about racism, but I personally don't agree. I believe this character is more of a satire on method actors than on black people. Also, Brandon T Jackson's character (who is really African-American) gives him tons of hell throughout the movie.
Needless to say, this movie had me laughing (out loud, which is very hard to do considering I am a snob) for most of the running time. The plot is slim, but there's enough homage to the war-film genre without becoming a straight-up satire. The movie looks great too, which should come as no surprise since John Toll was the Director of Photography (he shot the war-film masterpiece The Thin Red Line).
Enough can't be said about Tom Cruise's performance. He steals every single scene he's in, and it's quite refreshing to see him do a good job in a supporting role. Nick Nolte is his grizzly self and Danny McBride just keeps turning out good supporting work.
So, all in all, a great starring cast, a great supporting cast and a pretty funny script makes this movie the most fun I've had in a theatre since Knocked Up.
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