Summer Movie List No. 10

It occurred to me the other day that I haven't really written about movies recently. I used to quite a bit and am completely out of practice, so drop your expectations and maybe this will be fun.



I've decided, since the always interesting Summer Movie Season begins the first day of May practically, we'll spend April counting down 10 movies I'm fairly interested in seeing. Please excuse the mainstream nature of the list, but we're not going to get much by way of independent cinema. Movies that get a wide release, they come here. Movies that begin in New York and LA never come here unless we're talking 6 months down the road and it's a major "sleeper." Either way, it's major studio stuff. Enjoy.




No 10: Tropic Thunder

If the recent screening of "Animal House," as part of the film festival I'm involved in taught me anything, it's that I'm kind of hungry for the semi-smart ensemble R-rated comedies. You can watch gross-out R-rated comedies every day of the week and retire before you see them all, but the great ones like "Animal House" are hard to come by.

A little easier to find is the hard R action/comedy, a hybrid that's been done extremely well but never really settled as a genre. Beverly Hills Cop is a great example, but I tend to find movies like "Predator" funnier than most movies that try to be comedies, especially after a few beers.

Which is why "Tropic Thunder" barely made the list.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this movie is a sure thing. The potential for a high degree of suck is there, but so are the seeds for greatness. Robert Downey Jr. as a method actor who dyes his skin black for a role could go down in flames, yet the "what do you mean you people...what do YOU mean you people," line is probably one of the more clever jokes I've heard recently. Jack Black is hit or miss, all the time. And Stiller? The dude was brilliant once. I own The Ben Stiller Show on DVD and some of his work is spot on great, and should be used as an incantation against movies like "The Hearbreak Kid" or "Night at the Museum."

But the potential is there. And, if "Tropic Thunder" is headed for greatness, here's what it will need.

1) A slight touch on the high concept jokes and a fearlessness with the offensive ones.

2) Characters we don't want to see shot (I'm looking at you, Black!)

3)It can't get too inside baseball.

Should "Tropic Thunder" pull off this balancing act, this could be fantastic. There's greatness in the trailer. Take a good look.

"Tropic Thunder" comes out the second week in August.