Two Action Adventure Films, One Comedy and One Serious, Both Turn Out Average

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Tropic Thunder - 2 Stars (Average)

If you want some over-the-top laughs, see Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder", a very confused film that can't make up its mind whether it wants to be an action adventure, war story, comedy, satire, mockumentary or wannabe drama. In fact, it was a little of each and good at none, all of which makes it sometimes funny but an average film.

That would be because Stiller collaborated on the screenplay, directed the film, starred in it as Tugg Speedman, and was the driving force that made it happen.

In essence, one might say Tropic Thunder was all about Stiller with the help of some other headliners named Robert Downey Jr. (Kirk Lazarus—think rising from the dead), Jack Black (Jeff Portnoy—think Portnoy's Complaint), Tom Cruise (Les Grossman—not less, but more gross and vulger), and Matthew McConaughey (Rick Peck—think theatrical agent).

There were also lesser lights, including Brandon T. Jackson (Alpa Chino—think Al Pacino), Nick Nolte (Four Leaf Tayback—think way back, on the downslide), Bill Hader (Studio Executive Rob Slolom—fresh from Saturday Night Live) and a host of family, friends and buddies who got jobs in the film.

In 22 words, Tropic Thunder is about making a war film in Vietnam after the fact and the stars encounter an illegal drug production operation. Its rated R on purpose to accommodate the pervasive sexual references to body parts, violent content and drug material.

The funniest part in the film for me was listening to Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) unload a profanity-laced tirade on a kidnapper demanding a ransom for Tugg Speedman.

It would be difficult for me to say with a straight face that I am a Ben Stiller fan. Stiller always seems to me to have a vacant look about him, like you know there is a person inside that body but it is never evident from his countenance. Far too much of his humor centers on the gross, filthy and sexual, like he has a lot of fantasies he is never going to enjoy after the filming is over.

The real star of this film is not Stiller, but Robert Downey Jr. who was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Downey also picked up the same nomination from the Golden Globes, and Tom Cruise did as well in the same category. Neither won an Oscar or a Golden Globe.

300 - 2 Stars (Average)

"300" really suffered from having Zack Snyder both help write and then direct a remake of the historic Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC when 300 Spartans from Greece took on a Persian army 100,000+ led by King Xerxes. Some historians point to this event as the birthplace of freedom and democracy.

The best way to describe the merit of this film is to let you know that 300 won the Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film, and Snyder won as Best Director, at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards. You read that correctly. There were zero nominations for Golden Globe or Academy Awards. Certainly, 300 has some great battle scenes in a fantasy world.

It has very little place in the real world of filmmaking by filmgoers watching in the real world. Why? I thought you would never ask. Here's why:

The film was shot in 60 days while post-production (also known as hocus-pocus) took almost a year as there were 1,523 cuts in the film, and more than 1,300 visual effect shots involving 8,631 visual effect elements. This may or may not be some kind of a record worthy of the sorcery of Harry Potter.

The film was photographed almost entirely on a sound-stage in Montreal. This is carrying post-production to the extreme. The R rating (done on purpose) included the usual sexuality and nudity (with which the vast majority of films are made today), and enough bloody violence to choke a horse eating grain at a trough (585 visual killings by stabbing, goring, bludgeoning, slicing and cutting off body parts of soldiers and animals).

Spartan King Leonidas (Gerald Butler) manages to personally hack and whack 33 Persian soldiers, 1 Persian messenger and a wolf. I am told his number does not include Persians that he shielded off during battle sequences, as if that is important. Trust me when I say the 300 Spartans did a great job of killing animated characters.

I am sure that Zack Snyder was really pleased with his film and awards (think Sinatra and I did it my way); I was not as pleased. 300 reminds me of why I dislike so many action adventure films—not much real action, not much real adventure, too much real animation.