Tropic Thunder

[Slayerik]

I'm a lead farmer motha fucka!

[Evil Elvis]

Welcome to the goodie room.

[Miasma]

Never go full retard.

[Margalis]

Just cause it's a theme song don't mean it ain't true.

[Yegolev]

Watched over the weekend.  Good stuff.

I'm the dude playin' the dude disguised as the other dude!

[Big Gulp]

I can't believe how hard I laughed when he was messing around with the head.  I usually don't like Ben Stiller or his movies, but there always seems to be one scene that just leaves me howling.  In Zoolander it was the gasoline fight combined with the Wham song.

[Yegolev]

I have the problem where I enjoy Stiller's movies but I don't really enjoy Stiller in most of them.  I liked him in Meet the Parents, but I think he was playing himself.

[Grand Design]

Picked this up on Blu-ray today.  I had to stop it several times to catch my breath from laughing.  The 'head scene' was perfect.

I think people associate Ben Stiller with Meet the Parents and There's Something About Mary a bit too much.  He's obviously good at slapstick, but that is not his forte, and those were not his films.  The Ben Stiller Show is a great, although short-lived, example of his humor.  The Cable Guy and Zoolander, both his films, are also much unappreciated and very funny.  His episode on Extras is a perfect distillation of how people perceive him - short-fused, arrogant and at the whim of better writers and directors.  It's a role he plays well, but he isn't defined by it.

In Zoolander it was the gasoline fight combined with the Wham song.

God, I love that scene.  That's a great example of his comedic sense.  Relaxation Tape No. 2 and the Tony Robbins skits from his show are my personal favorites.

[stray]

Zoolander is one of my favorite movies, let alone comedies.


I like Meet the Parents though. Anytime I try to really put myself on the line, open up, and do my best, shit just goes bad. And then I try to repair it through irreputable means (mostly because I feel forced to). And then I get caught. And shit gets worse. Goes for just about any situation. I identify with that movie... and Stiller's schtick in general (a lot of his characters deal with that, I guess). The comedy of being misunderstood.

[Rasix]

 

[stray]

^ Exactly. 

This is you Rasix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgkvIbsJrD0

[edit] Must prevent myself from Going Full Retard here.  i.e. must not explain myself

[Yegolev]

It's more like: "I have nipples.  Can you milk me, Greg?"

[Riggswolfe]

"Our daughter is going to be a mother Fokker"

[Mrbloodworth]

"I don't drop character till i do the DvD cometary" 

[Cyrrex]

I had pretty high hopes for this one, but I gotta admit that I didn't care for it.  A few funny gags, but meh.  My wife simply stopped watching 10 minutes into it, probably after the head thing.  Unexpectedly, the sole redeeming quality for me was Tom Cruise as Les Whathisface.

[Velorath]

When my theater got our prints in, they were all missing the fake trailers and the Booty Sweat ad.  Luckily we got a e-mail letting us know to check for this, otherwise we never would have known they existed in the first place, and we were able to order replacements of the first reel for all our prints (with the trailers included).  I feel sorry for anyone who might have seen the movie without these attached.

I took every opportunity possible to walk into an auditorium when the Booty Sweat ad was about to start up.  Everytime it would go from normal trailers to Alpa Chino singing "I Love the Pussy", there would just be this moment of amused confusion among the audience.  Then when the Scorcher trailer starts up and people see Ben Stiller, they figure it out.

[Grand Design]

Satan's Alley cracked me up.

[Oban]

Wow, I feel dirty saying this but Tom Cruise was really good in this film.  The dancing studio Executive was... 

Les Grossman: The universe... is talking to us right now. You just gotta listen.
[turns on Flo Rider's "Low" and begins to dance to the beat]
Les Grossman: See, this is the good part, Pecker. This is when the job gets fun! Ask... and you shall receive!
Studio Executive Rob Slolom: [dancing along] Right...
Les Grossman: You play ball... we play ball. I knoowwww... you want the goodies!
Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Welcome to the goodie room!
Les Grossman: You paying attention? I'm talking... G5, Pecker! That's how you can roll. No more frequent flyer bitch miles for my boy! Oh yeah! Playa... playa! Big dick playa!
Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Swinging past ya knees!
Les Grossman: Big dick, baby!
Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Yep.
Les Grossman: [turns off the music] Or... you can grow a conscience in the next five minutes and see where that takes you.
Rick Peck: Now let me get this straight. You want me to let my client of 15 years, one of my best friends, die in the jungle alone, for some money and a G5?
Les Grossman: Yes.
Rick Peck: [pause] A G5 airplane?
Les Grossman: Yes... and lots of money... playaaaa!

[ahoythematey]

Yeah.  Tom Cruise playing the Exec was easily the highlight of the movie for me.  Now he needs to poke fun at organized cults and my faith in his abilities will be restored.

[Yegolev]

Yeah.  Tom Cruise playing the Exec was easily the highlight of the movie for me.  Now he needs to poke fun at organized cults and my faith in his abilities will be restored.

Didn't you see him in any recent interview?

[ahoythematey]

A big part of avoiding the sadness induced by Tom Cruise is avoiding the interviews he inflicts upon the populace.  So no.

[Salamok]

A big part of avoiding the sadness induced by Tom Cruise is avoiding the interviews he inflicts upon the populace.  So no.

qft, just because someone is famous doesn't mean they have any opinions worth listening to.  Personally I find most Tom Cruise movies entertaining and I don't really give a shit or expect anything from him above and beyond that.

edit: this movie needed more scenes with his character in it.

[Grand Design]

I never saw the theatrical release, but there seems to be plenty of Grossman in the director's cut.

And, on the Cruise hatred - I don't understand why his beliefs are so objectionable to people considering that the vast majority of the world believe in fantasies just as ridiculous.  I suppose that because their fantasies are ingrained in hundreds, if not thousands of years of tradition, they are less objectionable?  Body thetans sound ridiculous now, but so did transubstantiation a thousand years ago.  How are they any different, except that time has allowed more people leniency to accept other dogma as fact?  People are gullible, and actors are not immune.

[stray]

His beliefs never bothered me. I, admittedly, believe in things not everyone believes in too.

Scientology still sucks though. 

No really, he's just a gigantic douchebag. On the flipside, he plays douchebags well. Better than anyone. Because he is a douchebag. Lestat, Tropic Thunder producer, Rain Man, that scene where flipped out on the doctors in Vanilla Sky.. Name any role that Cruise was really good in and it was one of the roles where he was basically playing himself.

[Hindenburg]

I seriously doubt that.

[stray]

That was a douchebag role too.

That movie is seriously overrated though.

[edit] Actually, I'll just say this.. just to give him some credit. He plays good bad guys. That's probably his real forte. Lestat being the best of the bunch. It's not even Anne Rice's Lestat (the character is actually a little more likable than that), but I love his characterization. Or rather, I love when Tom Cruise goes in full douchebag mode and just acts like himself, like he does in interviews. It's entertaining.

[HaemishM]

Wow, Stray, your last post is in almost complete opposition to my thoughts. Yes, he plays a douchebag well (because he's not really playacting), but his Lestat was actually more likeable than Rice's (because Lestat makes me want to stab stab stab and never stop - least likeable character ever). And Collateral was a fucking good movie, more for Jamie Foxx and fantastic direction than him.

[stray]

No, I mean I actually like his take on Lestat. He's a "love tohate kind of shithead". The Anne Rice Lestat is like a rockstar or some shit. In touch with the direction with "modern culture" or something. Tom Cruise really doesn't fit into that mold well.. The other dude, in that other movie pulled off that version of Lestat well enough I guess. But it sucks. I like Lestat as the villain, from Louis' point of view.


Still think Collateral is a bit overrated though.

[Merusk]

No, I mean I actually like his take on Lestat. He's a "love tohate kind of shithead". The Anne Rice Lestat is like a rockstar or some shit. In touch with the direction with "modern culture" or something. Tom Cruise really doesn't fit into that mold well.. The other dude, in that other movie pulled off that version of Lestat well enough I guess. But it sucks. I like Lestat as the villain, from Louis' point of view.

I've decided she fell in love with the Lestat character when writing Interview.  The "love to hate kind of shithead" is exactly what the character was in Interview. He morphed into the Rockstar and center of the entire series with the next book, "The Vampire Lestat."  Every book after that has centered on him, insted of doing something interesting like examining the stories of all the vamps.  I had many hopes of the series examining things in a similar way to Interview and TVL and showing how the situations and characters looked differently to each vampire who was there.  But no, instead they became secondary characters and we got Douchy McHiddenEmo stealing bodies and talking to Queen Vamp, God and Satan while whining he couldn't have gay sex with a human. 

[Grand Design]

Thank you for confirming that not reading that series was a correct decision.

[stray]

No, I mean I actually like his take on Lestat. He's a "love tohate kind of shithead". The Anne Rice Lestat is like a rockstar or some shit. In touch with the direction with "modern culture" or something. Tom Cruise really doesn't fit into that mold well.. The other dude, in that other movie pulled off that version of Lestat well enough I guess. But it sucks. I like Lestat as the villain, from Louis' point of view.

I've decided she fell in love with the Lestat character when writing Interview.  The "love to hate kind of shithead" is exactly what the character was in Interview. He morphed into the Rockstar and center of the entire series with the next book, "The Vampire Lestat."  Every book after that has centered on him, insted of doing something interesting like examining the stories of all the vamps.  I had many hopes of the series examining things in a similar way to Interview and TVL and showing how the situations and characters looked differently to each vampire who was there.  But no, instead they became secondary characters and we got Douchy McHiddenEmo stealing bodies and talking to Queen Vamp, God and Satan while whining he couldn't have gay sex with a human. 

But I believe it's intentionally a skewed version of Lestat or something. He sometimes comes off as the character he was in the Vampire Lestat... It's just that Interview was done through the eyes of Louis. Or so I think.

[stray]

Thank you for confirming that not reading that series was a correct decision.

It's not worth reading just for Rice's writing style alone. Her stories are always fairly cool (imo), but she can't write. Kind of like Steven King. Good stories -- but can't write worth a shit.

[Simond]

The most hilarious thing about the Anne Rice vampire books is when she became a born-again Christian (and what she started saying about her books), and her fanbase's reaction. 

[stray]

She's not "born again Christian". She was always Catholic, and just became more in touch with it after her husband died from cancer. Still kind of a "grey" person in general though, and pretty intellectual about the subject (needless to say, but I've spoken with her about it. And it's ridiculous how people have reacted to that.. She's a normal person just doing her own thing).

[edit] whoa derail. should we go back to talking about tom cruise? 

[Tebonas]

I never saw the theatrical release, but there seems to be plenty of Grossman in the director's cut.

And, on the Cruise hatred - I don't understand why his beliefs are so objectionable to people considering that the vast majority of the world believe in fantasies just as ridiculous.  I suppose that because their fantasies are ingrained in hundreds, if not thousands of years of tradition, they are less objectionable?  Body thetans sound ridiculous now, but so did transubstantiation a thousand years ago.  How are they any different, except that time has allowed more people leniency to accept other dogma as fact?  People are gullible, and actors are not immune.

Maybe you should read up on Scientology and their practices. They are not a danger for what they believe, but for what they do.


Back on topic. Liked Tropic Thunder, wouldn't have seen it if I had known beforehand he was in it. Good for the movie they didn't advertise the fact openly enough for me to notice. In fact, I only realized at the end of the movie it was him.