Tropic Thunder - Stiller, 2008

I hugely despise Ben Stiller's work overall, often equating his participation in a movie as a fairly reliable bellwether of crappy content. Every once in awhile though, he does something moderately interesting. It's still mostly trash, but some of it is good. Dodgeball (5 rating) is a good example of this. Stupid, but it has its moments.

The same is true of Tropic Thunder. It's a parody of both the movie making industry and of war films, such as Apocalypse Now (8 rating). The movie never takes itself seriously, and is clearly self-parody, and it has several moderately interesting moments.

It's by no means a great film, but it is better than expected and mostly watchable. I was originally going to give it a 5, but after sleeping on it, the cheap parts stayed with me more that the good bits. A 4 rating.