I went in to Tropic Thunder with high expectations. This was to be THE comedy of the summer. An outrageous, no-holds barred comedy tackling controversial subjects and blasting celebrities with reckless abandon. As I walked out, my head hung low, saddled with the World’s Straightest Face. Disappointment coarsed through my body, followed by depression from being so disappointed, followed by a gigantic order of nachos to stuff my sorrows deep into my belly. I couldn’t understand why something so promising left me so empty. Good thing I had nachos.

There was so much to like in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. balancing a line between sharp satire and C Thomas Howell’s Soul Man. Jack Black playing a heroin addict. A baby with a knife. So why did it all end so badly for me? I know the 2 minutes of an extraneous, unfunny Tom Cruise dancing at the end of the movie left a bad taste in my mouth, but it wasn’t enough to sink the entire movie. Finally, it hit me. I’d seen this movie before. That must be it! I knew all the jokes, could see the plot twists coming a mile away, and felt like I could quote about 12% of the dialogue on the spot. Well, turns out I hadn’t seen the movie before, but I did watch all of the trailers.

The trailers for Tropic Thunder destroyed the entire film experience for me. Movies usually have about three moments ruined by their trailer, but it’s a necessary evil because the trailer is what got you in the theater. Everyone accepts that. But Tropic Thunder ’s trailers, especially the red band, show you so much, there’s almost no reason to see the movie. You know everything about Robert Downey Jr’s character. You know Ben Stiller gets attacked by a child. You know he licks a decapitated head. These are supposed to be big spots in the movie, moments that get the biggest reactions. Instead, they played to silence. No one in the audience laughed when Robert Downey Jr. said “What do you mean you people?” because they’d heard it 30 times already. The only thing not spoiled by the trailers was Tom Cruise’s role, which is amusing at first, but overplayed to the point of exhaustion. I get the feeling they were having so much fun shooting, they just kept giving him more to do.

I did laugh during Tropic Thunder, but the biggest laugh came from a reaction shot Robert Downey Jr. gave. It’s a small moment that would never get trailer time, and it’s probably the reason I loved it so much. Everything else received only minor chuckles. More than any other genre, comedy needs to be spoiler-free, because the jokes must be fresh in order to work. Any punch from this film was reduced to a finger flick in the arm, and I place all the blame on the trailers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I went in to Tropic Thunder with high expectations. This was to be THE comedy of the summer. An outrageous, no-holds barred comedy tackling controversial subjects and blasting celebrities with reckless abandon. As I walked out, my head hung low, saddled with the World’s Straightest Face. Disappointment coarsed through my body, followed by depression from being so disappointed, followed by a gigantic order of nachos to stuff my sorrows deep into my belly. I couldn’t understand why something so promising left me so empty. Good thing I had nachos.

There was so much to like in this movie. Robert Downey Jr. balancing a line between sharp satire and C Thomas Howell’s Soul Man. Jack Black playing a heroin addict. A baby with a knife. So why did it all end so badly for me? I know the 2 minutes of an extraneous, unfunny Tom Cruise dancing at the end of the movie left a bad taste in my mouth, but it wasn’t enough to sink the entire movie. Finally, it hit me. I’d seen this movie before. That must be it! I knew all the jokes, could see the plot twists coming a mile away, and felt like I could quote about 12% of the dialogue on the spot. Well, turns out I hadn’t seen the movie before, but I did watch all of the trailers.

The trailers for Tropic Thunder destroyed the entire film experience for me. Movies usually have about three moments ruined by their trailer, but it’s a necessary evil because the trailer is what got you in the theater. Everyone accepts that. But Tropic Thunder ’s trailers, especially the red band, show you so much, there’s almost no reason to see the movie. You know everything about Robert Downey Jr’s character. You know Ben Stiller gets attacked by a child. You know he licks a decapitated head. These are supposed to be big spots in the movie, moments that get the biggest reactions. Instead, they played to silence. No one in the audience laughed when Robert Downey Jr. said “What do you mean you people?” because they’d heard it 30 times already. The only thing not spoiled by the trailers was Tom Cruise’s role, which is amusing at first, but overplayed to the point of exhaustion. I get the feeling they were having so much fun shooting, they just kept giving him more to do.

I did laugh during Tropic Thunder, but the biggest laugh came from a reaction shot Robert Downey Jr. gave. It’s a small moment that would never get trailer time, and it’s probably the reason I loved it so much. Everything else received only minor chuckles. More than any other genre, comedy needs to be spoiler-free, because the jokes must be fresh in order to work. Any punch from this film was reduced to a finger flick in the arm, and I place all the blame on the trailers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 8:57 am and is filed under Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.