Tropic Thunder
 

LOL. Looks hilarious. I love it in the commercial when he's yelling "CUT!!! CUT!!!!"

http://www.tropicthunder.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/

Oh and Robert Downey, Jr. is in "black face" to pretend he's a black actor. In the movie, the other black actor thinks he's really a fellow black actor.

I saw this thread title, and for some reason I thought of Thunder from Down Under -- the all-male revue. :eek:

Is Ben Stiller in it? :eek:

He probably wishes he were in it:

http://www.zanzabarhawaii.com/calima...1900223210.jpg

They were here last summer and my friend won tickets from a radio station.

It was a very eye opening experience.

Does he though? Cause when I saw the preview it seemed like the other black actor knew that Downey Jr's character wasn't really black.

I soo wanna see this movie, it looked freaking hilarious. At first I was like "oh no, not another soldier movie" but i'm glad it's a comedy.

I saw a preview where the other actor said something like "they had cast for 2 black actors and instead they gave the other part to Crocodile Dundee."

I dunno.

Entertainment Tonight said he had the other (black) actor fooled. Maybe they were just talking about in real life. :confused: The clip they showed had the black actor clowning Downey Jr.

It's quite possible I'm more excited for this movie than I was for "The Dark Knight"...After reading about Downey's "never go full retard" line about winning the Oscar's, I was hooked.

Hmmm...I haven't seen that preview. Maybe I just misconstrued the preview I saw. I guess i'll see when the movie comes out.

Oh in the previews I've seen since Entertainment Tonight, the other black actor definitely knows. :) Who knows what ET was talking about. We'll see.

homina homina homina homina homina

Thanks for that!

*buries head back into work, suddenly invigorated...*

I don't like strippers but they have nice abs.

Did anyone watch the reality show where guys were competing for a chance to be part of Thunder from Down Under??

That was just :eek: yummy reality tv!! lol

I just got back from watching the movie.

I'll admit that Tom Cruise was a big highlight of the movie. He was hilarious. Robert Downey Jr was also funny.

Did anyone else who saw it have problems understanding RDJ's "black speak"? My friend (a huge RD fan) and I kept looking at each other like (wtf?!). There were some parts that were just out there (you know how guy humor can get). But overall I was impressed and admire Ben's skills as a director.

I LOOOVED Tom Cruise in it.. it was soo hilarious when he was dancing to FLo Rida... overall i think the movie was pretty funny and i also thought the mock movie trailors were funny

lol--I saw this w/ the bf last night--his choice. Why did I not realize that was Tom Cruise?! I kept trying to place the face. It was pretty funny. RDJ really did look African American. I was trying to see if 2 actors were actually playing the part.

I def didn't notice that it was Tom Cruise until one of my friends pointed it out to me..RDJ's makeup was soo convincing him and the other black guy were def.almost the same complexion

It's good to see Cruise get back to being funny and back awaaaaaaaaay from the crazy table.

i completely agree

OMG! That was Tom Cruise? I had no idea! I feel like I should go and see it again! Lol. The preview commercial ads were such a brilliant idea...I'm glad I showed up "on time" for the movie! :)

(I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE SO NO SPOILERS pretty please!!)

About RDJ playing a black actor. I always wonder (thinking back to "Soul Man") when does it cross the line from being acceptable to not acceptable to change one's skin color to black. I remember reading about prohibition on Blackface from long ago - granted that was often done in mockery of the black race, was distasteful in the presentation (it looked like motor oil), etc. I had seen enough old movies with bad vaudeville in them.

I also remember Eddie Murphy's sketch on SNL where he played a "White man" - thanks to makeup.

What is the line between being offensive and doing it as comedy with the audience being in on the joke? I am probably not asking this correctly, but does anyone have any thoughts?

I haven't seen the movie, either. :)

I don't mind spoilers because they don't spoil the movie for me. But to be fair to others, lets give it a week before people give spoilers. Kind of like we did for The Dark Knight. :)

Long story short: It depends on the who, what, when, where, and why. You already addressed the historical and purpose context of blackface. If whites were an objectified group, there would've been more offense to the Wayans', Murphy's, and Martin Lawrence's "white face" comedy. That doesn't make the humor any less risque' (risky? :confused:) because there actually were people who were like :eek: when they saw it. But that's a risk that some comedians have been allowed to take.
Even RDJ's cute self was playing on stereotypes in his portrayal of a black man. His role called for him to be a white actor pretending to be a black actor, so it isn't funny if he's not "trying too hard." :)

That isn't a fun discussion. :) Tropic Thunder is a fun movie.

As I understand - RDJ's character is a satire of actors that go over the top w/ getting into a role, like Robert DeNiro gaining tons of weight for Raging Bull and Jim Carrey talking like Andy Kaufman even when they weren't filming. This is just taking that to the next absurd level. His character is a white actor who had treatments to make his skin black.

Soul Man was a terribly done movie w/ a terrible story and terrible acting - it wasn't winking saying "how ridiculous this is", it didn't have that level of intelligence.

I agree. The movie's intended to mock actors and Hollywood. And it's a Ben Stiller movie, which automatically makes it a silly spoof. :)