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.

An Introduction

Hello to anyone (and at this point "anyone" heretofore probably means "no one") who is reading this blog. I have to get going soon, so this will have to be brief. My name is Lorenzo Nardini. I am a film student in the greater Los Angeles area and, as such, I tend to drown myself in media. Not just movies, but video games, television, books, magazines, and the occasional sales brochure (roughly from most drown-y to least drown-y). So, since that's about all I think about, that's what I'm going to write about here. I know there are probably about 15,238,164 blogs already posting about this type of thing, but I don't really care. My guess is few people will end up reading this anyways. And if this blog does, by some miracle, become a worldwide phenomenon, then I'll just have to step up my game.

Well, so far, this is feeling a lot like Live Journal. For some reason, though, it has an air of maturity that Live Journal doesn't. I don't know. We'll just have to see how this all turns out. Expect my first real post to be in the next day or two (if not before tomorrow).

Well, my phone is ringing, so I have to get going. Until next time, stay safe. And remember, everything happens for a reason.

This has been Lorenzo, reporting from "Zo"llywood.