Tropic Thunder

I've had several members of the churches that I serve ask about recommendations about movies or information about movies that are in the theaters now. So, I'm going to try to watch a movie in a theater at least once a week (I know, I said try!) and post a review of the movie. I'll try and watch and review from as many different perspectives that I can think of, but I by no means think that I'll have the best review out there or that it will have the best advice in there. I also would say that you should not take my judgement as your own, but use this as a tool to make your decision on whether you will see a particular movie or allow your children to see a particular movie.

Tropic Thunder (Rated R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material.)

I thought this would be funnier than it was. There were times when it was funny, especially when it was poking fun at the Hollywood community. However, there were also many scenes that were offensive. I think in some ways, there was an intentional offensive nature to it and some have described it as going up to the line sticking a toe and running back...I'm not sure...I think that there are some lines that are crossed and crossed very intentionally. The language is very rough and very graphic. Clearly this is not a movie that is acceptable for children. I love satire and I think that satire has a wonderful place to offer social commentary and help to provide avenues for change or to provide a time of thought provoking conversation. I'm not sure that this is really satire because the only social commentary that it provides is for those who seem to be involved in the Hollywood community and actors in particular. The commentary does not appear to be for anyone outside of that, other than those who may look that deep into a movie or an actor's portrayal of a character.

The social commentary that I did see was between Robert Downey Jr.'s character Kirk Lazarus and Brandon T. Jackson's charcter Alpa Chino. Robert Downey Jr. played an Australian who undergoes a controversial surgery to have his skin pigmentation augmented to be black. So, an Anglo is playing an African-American in the movie. The conversations that go on between these two men about race and racial relations is intriguing and the conversation about white privilege can certainly come forward from watching those scenes. Granted, there are times when they are not the most tactful, but there are sometimes in life that there is not a tactful way of sharing the problems of the world.

There is not any kind of faith basis in the movie and if there are any glimpses into faith, they would be forced and contrived. There is no faith basis in the movie.