Tropic Thunder

The documentary “Hearts of Darkness” is about the difficulties of filming the famous Vietnam war movie “Apocalypse Now.” Ben Stiller’s 2008 “Tropic Thunder” is like that doc’s nightmare. A group of actors, with the idea they’re making a Vietnam war movie, travel dangerously in the jungle and is captured by a gang of druglords who think the actors are decoys.

Roger Ebert said in his review, “The movie is a send-up of Hollywood, actors, acting, agents, directors, writers, rappers, trailers and egos, much enhanced by several cameo roles, the best of which I will not even mention.” You’ll know the one, however you may have to wait for the credits to know for sure.

The highlight of the film, Robert Downey Jr. is not just funny but also very good and sometimes even indirect as Kirk Lazarus, an Australian actor who has won five Oscars and has surgically dyed his skin to change himself into a black man. He is very committed to this role that he stays in character all the time, looking convinced that he is actually black.

This irritates his fellow actor Alpa Chino, played by comedian Brandon T. Jackson, a rapper who was born black and snaps Lazarus out of his fantasy. Alpa Chino (say it out loud) like many rappers and promotes his own merchandise, famously Booty Sweat, an energy drink that keeps him going in the jungle. If Chino doesn’t buy the Lazarus character, Lazarus is critical of Tugg Speedman, played by Stiller, who also starred in “Simple Jack,” a movie about a mentally challenged farmer who thinks animals can understand him.

Ironically, it is that role that saves their lives when they’re taken prisoner. The bored druglords have only one video, an old “Simple Jack” tape, and think Speedman is Jack himself. Ebert said, “In a brilliant comic riff by Downey, Lazarus critiques Speedman’s work as over the top: The really big stars, he observes, “never go full retard” when playing such roles.”

The movie starts with trailers setting up three of the characters – not only Lazarus and Speedman, but Jeff Portnoy, played by Jack Black, whose famous for fart jokes. Ebert said, “Portnoy is a heroin addict who is in withdrawal for much of the trek through the jungle, and has a funny scene after he begs to be tied to a tree and then begs to be set loose.”

The set-up involves the actors, director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) and burnt-out screenwriter Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) in the jungle with a huge crew (including Jay Baruchel) and explosives expert Cody (Danny McBride). Ebert said, “When one of the explosions goes off prematurely (think the opening of “The Party”), Speedman, acting as producer, fires the crew and announces he will direct the movie himself.” He explains that hidden cameras have been placed in the jungle and will record everything that happens. Is that possible, especially when they get lost? Ebert said, “These actors, even the five-time Oscar winner, almost seem to believe so, a tribute to their self-centered indifference to technical details.”

Alternate with the jungle scenes are Holly scenes with an agent (Matthew McConaughey and Bill Hader) and a studio executive (Tom Cruise). The movie, written by Justin Theroux, Stiller, and Etan Cohen, is familiar with the trials of filmmaking and location work, and refines it into crazy exaggerated scenes that have a hint of accuracy. Especially interested is the way the director, Damien Cockburn, leaves the film, which perhaps reflects the way some actors feel about some directors.

Ebert said, “The movie is, may I say, considerably better than Stiller’s previous film, “Zoolander” (2001). It’s the kind of summer comedy that rolls in, makes a lot of people laugh and rolls on to video. It’s been a good summer for that; look at “Pineapple Express.”” When it’s over, you’ll probably remember Robert Downey Jr. the most. 2008 was a good year for him, since “Tropic Thunder” came after “Iron Man.” After that year, he was back big time.

As I stated last week, this is my all-time favorite comedy. I just loved how much this film parodies different types of films and actors, especially the genre the actors think they are filming. The best parts are the camaraderie between Downey, Black, and Stiller. Those three work well off of one another and the comedy they have with the rest of the actors is just great. This is another film where Cruise does not play his usual role and was different, especially seeing McConaughy in something different rather than a romantic comedy, which he was known for. Check this film out and have an enjoyable time laughing at it from beginning to end. Currently, this is streaming on Paramount+.

Thank you for joining in on “Nick Nolte Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed it and have seen the films I recommended. Stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.

Plankton: The Movie

Last Thursday, I saw “Plankton: The Movie,” released on Netflix last month. How’s this spin-off compared to the last one?

Less than a year after the release of “Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie,” the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise releases another spin-off with “Plankton: The Movie.” Brian Orndorf said in his review, “It’s a sudden SpongeBobbing that’s a little disorienting, as someone, somewhere is determined to increase media ubiquity of the franchise and its cast of characters. “Sandy Cheeks” wasn’t entirely successful, but it remained an entertaining cartoon event, handling the presentation of a supporting player as she’s granted a starring role. “Plankton: The Movie” does away with heroism, electing to extend screen time with a villain, albeit one who never seems to have much success when disrupting daily life in Bikini Bottom. Thankfully, Plankton is an amusing irritant to follow, and while the production still maintains trouble with final acts, the offering is spirited and humorous, gifting co-writer/star Mr. Lawrence an opportunity to shine.”

Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) stays determined to want control of Bikini Bottom, wanting to steal the secret Krabby Patty formula from Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown). Launching “Operation Success,” Plankton prepares for victory, but his “computer wife” Karen, voiced by Jill Talley, is losing interest in this fight, wanting to bring Plankton back to normal with her idea of a Chum Bucket renovation. When Plankton refuses to give up his desire, Karen goes haywire, launching a giant magnet that pulls Bikini Bottom up from the depths, helping to create a giant metal machine that’s run by this once nice computer, who’s now split into three evil personalities. Now afraid, Plankton hurries to stop this destruction, only to end up with SpongeBob, voiced by Tom Kenny, who uses his therapy methods to find where the villain started this behavior and look back at when Karen was invented. Orndorf said, “Plankton returns to his past to combat his gigantic spouse, attempting to fight fire with fire while Bikini Bottom residents hope to introduce the scheming little cyclops copepod to a concept alien to his existence: empathy.”

“Plankton: The Movie” doesn’t waste time getting to the villain, catching up with the puny green man and his pet, Spot, as they finish up “Operation Success,” which is meant to finally bring Mr. Krabs’s secret recipe in Plankton’s hands, letting him begin his mission to take over the world. We’ve seen this before, and the screenplay (by Mr. Lawrence, Kaz, and Chris Viscardi) acknowledges this tiring situation, especially with Karen, who’s programmed to support Plankton, but is prepared to show him a happier life in a renovated Chum Bucket, bringing better food and a warmer atmosphere to paying customers. “Plankton: The Movie” gets some laughs out of the protagonist’s inability to think of the possibility of business, and it introduces the first of many songs (including I’m a Jerky Jerk), turning the film into a musical with the help from songwriters Bret McKenzie, Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh, and Linda Perry.

Orndorf said, “Karen and Plankton eventually split over their disagreement, but it’s no everyday marital spat, as the computer turns evil, creating different personalities while destroying Bikini Bottom with a giant magnet (which allows for plenty of sight gags). A journey of realization is created for Plankton, who needs SpongeBob’s help to access the past, transforming the yellow lunatic into a Freud-like analyst capable of hypnotizing his patient, and “Plankton: The Movie” returns to Karen’s origin, initially manufactured from a calculator, a roller skate, and a potato. Director Dave Needham has fun playing with different animation styles to explore these moments of mental time travel, and the writing tries to develop the relationship between Plankton and Karen. The past puts the eponymous character on an odyssey to save the future, taking the creatures on a side trip to Bikini State University, returning Plankton to his happiest days.”

Orndorf continued, ““Plankton: The Movie” is most entertaining during these examinations of personal history, and development of the main madman’s world is welcome, extending to a trip into his “basement of failures.”” Supporting characters eventually join the journey, including Sandy and her “gal pals,” who make the mistake of introducing SpongeBob to coffee. Orndorf ended his review by saying, “Community sequences shine here, but there seems to be some type of studio order that all of these features need to climax with chaos, and “Plankton: The Movie” is no different, mixing the promising storytelling journey of empathy with plenty of large-scale cartoon violence. It’s more of the same, but Needham gets something out of this spin-off, and Mr. Lawrence’s gloriously unhinged voice work as Plankton is always good for laughs, now provided with extra dramatic substance to help add fresh details to the tyrannical character.”

I thought this was an entertaining, enjoyable film to watch. If you have been a fan of this franchise and seen all of the past films, than don’t miss the chance to see this one on Netflix. Check it out and have an enjoyable time laughing at this film.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the conclusion of “Nick Nolte Month.”

The Prince of Tides

By directing one good film, you show that you had a movie inside of you. By directing two, you show you are a real director, and that is what Barbra Streisand proved with “The Prince of Tides,” a confident and very serious 1991 love story that allows neither humor nor romance to get in the way of its deeper and darker topic.

The film stars Nick Nolte, in an Oscar-worthy performance, as an unemployed, lost, and miserably married football coach from the South, who travels north to New York City after his twin sister, a poet, tries to commit suicide. This is not her first attempt, and as we find out more about Nolte’s character, we begin to understand why he has special reason to care for her. They both had a traumatizing childhood.

In New York, Nolte meets his sister’s psychiatrist, played by Streisand, who is also not happily married, and their conversations change from therapeutic to personal, as both characters begin to feel that the other is lonely and drawn away from the normal human cheer. Roger Ebert said in his review, ‘We are familiar with the general profile of such relationships from many other movies, but “The Prince of Tides” is not about anything so banal as the ways that opposites attract. It is about two people whose affection offers a cure for each other – if they have the courage.”

Streisand has a son, played by Jason Gould, who is poor at sports, and Nolte agrees to throw a football around with him, getting to like the boy in the process. Streisand also has a husband, played by Jeroen Krabbe, who is a famous violinist and evil snob, who, as Ebert said, “gets one-upped by Nolte in a scene so funny and impeccably written that it is a crime, a violent crime against the cinema, that the surprise is spoiled in the movie’s trailers and publicity clips.”

Nolte was once happily married to Blythe Danner, but there is no more love in their marriage, maybe because of the pains he has deep in him. There is a distance between himself and his children. He loves his sister, played by Melinda Dillon, but feels hopeless to help her.

His emotional life still is around his mother, played by Kate Nelligan (Ebert noted, “playing both young and old, in her second great supporting performance in 1991, after “Frankie and Johnnie”)”. She was once really poor, married to a violent alcoholic who abused her and her children. Then, she married a local rich man whose evil was more superior. Her son hates her, but cannot free himself of her.

Ebert mentioned, ““The Prince of Tides” is based on a novel by Pat Conroy, who also wrote The Lords of Discipline, another novel in which the lives of young men are scarred by the weaknesses of their elders.” However, this time the movie is not quite that easy. These are complicated people who have lived difficult lives, and a quick romance or some feelgood therapy is not going to heal their pain. What Streisand shows, with likeable patience as both a director and writer here, is that the people can heal best by learning to build and trust relationships.

Ebert noted, “The movie is not all grimness and pain, of course. A dinner party scene provides a big liberating laugh, and the chemistry between Nolte and Streisand – such different people – is exciting because their minds, as well as their bodies, touch and are soothed.”

Ebert ended his review by saying, “In “Yentl” and again here, Streisand shows herself as a director who likes emotional stories – but doesn’t simplify them, and pays attention to the human quirks and strangeness of her characters.”

The late George Carlin plays Nolte’s gay neighbor in here. This is a very emotional movie. Currently, you can stream this on Pluto TV, and I do recommend this film. You should definitely give this a watch and see for yourself what type of an emotional roller coaster ride of a film this is. Once you see it, it will leave a lasting impression with you. Check it out and see for yourself.

Look out next week when I finish “Nick Nolte Month” with my absolute favorite comedy of all time.

Another 48 Hrs.

Roger Ebert started his review by asking, “You know how sometimes, in a dream, you’ll see these familiar scenes and faces floating in and out of focus, but you’re not sure how they connect?” “Another 48 Hrs.,” is a 1990 movie that feels the same way. The basic idea is familiar from the original “48 Hrs.” and the villains and cops are all basic movie stereotypes. However, what exactly is going on? Everybody seems to be looking for the Iceman, who is a criminal genius in control of all drug traffic in the San Francisco Bay area. A cop named Cates has been trying to find him for years – but every time he gets close, the Iceman slips away. Meanwhile, a convict named Hammond is about to be released from prison. Maybe he knows who the Iceman is. Maybe he can help Cates. On the other hand, maybe he can’t. He sure doesn’t want to.

Ebert said, “Watching the movie, I was trying to remember the details of the 1982 film.” In the first film, Nolte was trying to find some cop killers and he got Hammond out of prison for 48 hours to help him out. They became quite a duo – the hung-over white cop and the confident young black man, both suspicious of each other, both learning to be friends.

The movie had the scene that made Murphy into a star, a scene where he walked into a redneck bar, impersonated a police officer, and intimidated everyone with just the amount of his personality.

In the sequel, years have passed. Cates has stopped drinking (and apparently lost his long-suffering girlfriend). Hammond is back in prison, but Cates is holding $475,000 for him when he gets out. Meanwhile, in a shoot-out during a motorcycle race, Cates kills a man who fired at him. However, the other guy’s gun disappears, and with no evidence besides Cates’ troublesome personnel record, his badge is lifted and he’s charged with manslaughter.

Ebert noted, “Meanwhile, there is a bunch of long-haired, leather-jacketed, tattooed motorcycle gang members who cruise the desert blowing people away. They apparently work for someone who works for the Iceman. They want Hammond dead – so badly that they try to kill him by opening fire on the prison bus that’s returning him to civilization. You might ask why the bus driver couldn’t simply push them off the road during the high-speed chase, but that would be too logical a question for this movie, which specializes in confusing and endless action scenes.”

There’s one crucial difference between this movie and the original: We never get any idea of the friendship and camaraderie between Hammond and Cates. Their idea of friendship comes down to hitting each other as hard as they can, “to even the score.” They have no dialogue scenes together of any depth. The plot they’re in is so confusing that at one point they simply go back to the prison and ask one long-time inmate, played by Bernie Casey, to identify the guy they’re after. He gives them the man’s name and address. How does he know all of this information? Don’t ask.

Ebert pointed out, “Meanwhile, back at police headquarters, the cop plot is recycled from dozens of other movies. How often do we have to sit through that scene where the Internal Affairs guy makes the hero hand over his badge and gun. Leaving all the other movies out of it, this is the second time in a few months that Nike Nolte has personally had to go through that scene (after “Q & A”).” When the big secret of the Iceman’s identity finally is revealed, you ask: Would the drug kingpin of the entire Bay Area really need to keep the daytime job? Ebert said, ““Another 48 HRS” was directed by Walter Hill, who also did the previous movie, and who knows how to shoot violence so it looks convincing, although here he stages a scene that sets some kind of indoor record for the amount of glass that is broken. Hill and his writers, John Fasano, Jeb Stuart and Larry Gross, have not exactly extended themselves to create a new and original story for this movie, and the big set-piece once again involves Murphy and Nolte inside a redneck bar. It’s an aimless scene with a lot of loose ends, a reminder of how well the earlier scene worked.”

What holds the movie together to some degree is the simple presence of Murphy and Nolte, who are not given great dialogue or much of a story, but who have a certain charisma that’s interesting to watch. Ebert said, “Murphy in particular needed this movie, I think, as a corrective after his unfortunate “Harlem Nights” – a movie that was seen by a great many people, many of whom didn’t enjoy it all that much.”

If it does nothing else, “Another 48 Hrs.” reminds us that Murphy is a huge, genuine talent. Now it’s time for him to make a good movie.

I guess people can guess, this is not a good sequel. I don’t understand what could have happened that made this sequel bad. Because this could have potentially launched a franchise, but this film killed the idea. If you liked the first movie, don’t see the sequel. This is going to shame you for seeing it and you will regret putting this on.

Next week, we’re going to look at another classic film in “Nick Nolte Month.”

48 Hrs.

I thought of dedicating the month of April to Nick Nolte, as I almost reviewed films that I had seen of his last year, but something came up that I ended up delaying it to this year. Let’s start off the month with the film that probably started the buddy cop genre, “48 Hrs.,” released 1982.

Sometimes an actor becomes a star with just one scene. Roger Ebert noted in his review, “Jack Nicholson did it in “Easy Rider,” wearing the football helmet on the back of the motorcycle.” It happened to Faye Dunaway when she looked tiredly out of a screen window at Warren Beatty in “Bonnie and Clyde.” With “48 Hrs.,” it happens to Eddie Murphy.

His unforgettable scene comes about halfway through the film. He plays a convict who has done thirty months for theft and has six months left – but he gets a forty-eight-hour prison leave because of Nick Nolte, a hungover hothead detective who’s on the path of some cop murderers and thinks Murphy can help. Murphy thinks there’s a bartender who may have some information. Ebert noted, “The thing is, the bar is a redneck country joint, the kind where urban cowboys drink out of longneck bottles and salute the Confederate flag on the wall. Murphy has been jiving Nolte about how he can handle any situation.” Nolte gives him a chance. Murphy, mocking a police officer, walks into the bar, takes command, completely intimidates everybody, and gets his information. Ebert credited, “It’s a great scene — the mirror image of that scene in “The French Connection” where Gene Hackman, as Popeye Doyle, intimidated the black regulars in a Harlem bar.”

Murphy has other good moments in the film, as does Nolte, who gives a great performance as a skeptical, irresponsible, and immature cop who’s always saying lies to his girlfriend and sneaking a sip of whiskey out of his own flask. The two men began suspicious of each other in the film and end up having a warm dislike. Eventually, grudgingly, a type of respect starts to happen.

Ebert said, “The movie’s story is nothing to write home about. It’s pretty routine.” What makes the movie special is how it’s made. Nolte and Murphy and good, and their dialogue is good too – original and funny.

James Remar makes a really evil villain, realistically bad. Annette O’Toole gets the role of Nolte’s lover, but it’s another one of those thankless women’s roles. Ebert said, “Not only could O’Toole have phoned it in — but she does, spending most of her scenes on the telephone calling Nolte a no-good bum.” The direction is by Walter Hill, who has never been any good at scenes with women and doesn’t improve this time. What he is good at is action, male camaraderie, and atmosphere. His movies almost always have at least one wonderfully choreographed, unbelievably violent fight scene (Ebert asked, “remember Charles Bronson’s bare-knuckle fight in “Hard Times“?”), and the fight scene this time is tiring.

Where Hill grows in this movie is in his ability to create characters. Ebert mentioned, “In a lot of his earlier movies (“The Warriors,” “The Driver,” “The Long Riders,” “Southern Comfort“) he preferred men who were symbols, who represented things and so didn’t have to be human. In “48 Hrs.,” Nolte and Murphy are human, vulnerable, and touching. Also mean, violent, and chauvinistic.” It’s that type of movie.

This is a great movie. If you haven’t seen this movie, you’re missing out. You should definitely check this one out because it’s a classic and everyone will love it. This is currently streaming on Paramount+, so if you have that, see it and have an enjoyable time. This one is for the Nolte and Murphy fans, as I believe this was Murphy’s film debut.

I don’t think it comes as a surprise that this film was so successful that it had a sequel. However, if you want to know how that one is, stay tuned next week to find out in “Nick Nolte Month.”