Tropic Thunder

Let us now praise Robert Downey Jr., who is the only reason to sit through this comedy about a Vietnam War epic that - oops - accidentally finds its pampered cast engaged in real jungle combat. The star's Oscar-hound character, Kirk Lazarus, is cast as an African-American soldier; this means Lazarus - and thus, Downey - spends the entire film in blackface.

Actor, director and co-writer Ben Stiller undoubtedly intended to mine easy yucks from the shock value, but Downey transforms the cheap gag into a metacomedic coup. He plays a ridiculously extreme thespian with an equally po-faced intensity. Watching Lazarus preach against the perils of going ‘full retard' to win awards or bemoan how the n-word has held ‘his people' down with such misguided gravitas, you can't help but admire Downey's dynamic act of comic jujitsu.

The actor's darkened visage doesn't come off as offensive; it's Tropic Thunder's waste of its other talents, notably Jack Black, and the curious laziness in the laughs department that are insulting. Tropic Thunder is nothing but mild vulgarity mixed with explosions and entitlement, a piss-take on Hollywood excess that doubles as an example of it.

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