Every so often, a comedy comes along that stirs things up. It is a comedy that is so profoundly funny and witty and original that people can scarcely believe their eyes. It shatters comedic box office records (not that the records are laughable, but they are records for comedies), and forever changes the landscape of comedy as Hollywood knows it.


Tropic Thunder is not that movie. The last movie to do that was 40-Year-Old Virgin and, as far as we know, it could be that long before another movie comes along that is as likable as Steve Carell's first foray into leading man territory. (Never mind that Carell, aside from The Office, has not led any comedies to success since then, either.)

This is not to say that Tropic Thunder is not worth its weight in salt, especially in the current landscape of comedies, which, unless you count "The Happening" as a comedy, has been rather bleak. On the contrary, I enjoyed Tropic Thunder very much. It grew on me as I was sitting in the theater. Like a good meal, it started slow, then started to barrel along as the soup, salad, and finally, the main course arrived, steaming hot and full of savory flavors. By the time Jack Black was shoving fistfuls of heroin into people's faces, they could have had Matthew McConaughey show up at the end as some kind of Deus Ex Machina to save the day and I still would have bought it.

To extend the dinner metaphor, Tom Cruise shows up to sprinkle his special brand of humor over the whole shebang like a good paprika spice. I'm convinced that this is what Tom Cruise should spend the rest of his career doing; showing up as strong, interesting supporting characters instead of playing flavorless lead characters. He danced a fine line when he played Vincent in Collateral, but he's almost always been much more riveting in these supporting roles.

Anyways, to go back to the nuclear wasteland that is Hollywood comedy, I will now turn your attention to the John Cockcroft and Ernest Rutherford of this phenomenon: Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedburg. The genre of "terrible spoof" has been around for alot longer than they have. This can be evidenced as early as "Ricky I", a movie that came to my attention only recently through the Angry Video Game Nerd. I will only go so far right now as to say that "Disaster Movie"'s title all too easily lend itself its own review. Next time, I will elaborate on why these two filmmakers prove that hard work does not always equal inspired work.