Initially, I put this title off because I felt like I'd already learned all there is to know about it. Then I put it off more when I learned that Ben Stiller starred and directed (he's even more of a red flag for me than Will Ferrell) and Jack Black was among the highest billed. But recently, I heard an interview in which Robert Downey Jr. reflected fondly on it. Maybe it would be worth a viewing after all.
The production of a modern Vietnam War epic is going slowly and over budget, apparently because the director (Steve Coogan) doesn't know how to work with prima donnas. At the advice of the gritty writer of the book being adapted (Nick Nolte), he sends the five main actors deeper into the jungle for a more authentic experience. Little does any of them know that this jungle is home to a strong gang of heroin manufacturers, who mistake the fake soldiers for Drug Enforcement Administration officers (do they have international jurisdiction?). The actors, in turn, take a little while to realize that the criminals aren't other actors.
The premise of actors accidentally winding up with the real deal brings to mind ¡Three Amigos!, A Bug's Life, and Galaxy Quest. One key difference is that nobody's inviting the actors to be heroes. Heroism rather than mere survival comes into play only when Tugg Speedman (Stiller), coincidentally mirroring the scripted story, gets captured. Also, there's no war in the usual sense.
The captors, led by a badass preteen (Brandon Soo Hoo), are actually big fans of Speedman, but they have a funny way of showing it. They threaten to kill him if they don't get a huge ransom, which the greedy, irascible producer (Tom Cruise) and his aide (Bill Hader) refuse to pay. In the meantime, they force Speedman to reenact their favorite movie, which had bombed in the States.
The character who commands the most audience attention is Kirk Lazarus (Downey), the most esteemed actor, who's gambling his reputation by playing an African American. He looks and sounds pretty convincing as such, aside from the jive talk. Even when he knows how severe the danger is, he keeps method-acting out of habit, much to the consternation of the true Black guy, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a highly commercialistic rapper-cum-actor whose lewd public focus may be compensating for something.
Also in the picture are Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), a young actor of no fame yet who was the only one to read the book or screenplay in full; and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), previously a purely lowbrow comic actor with an ongoing addiction to...you guessed it. And lest you think only the actors are getting in on the action, the writer, the on-set demolition expert (Danny McBride), and even Speedman's agent (Matthew McConaughey) enter the field for a rescue mission.
You might assume that the R rating is for violence first and foremost. Well, the body count is higher than zero but hardly on par with a genuine war epic. Most of the gratuitous gore is in the film within the film, so we have an extra layer of falsity for comfort. I'm about equally concerned with the torrent of vulgar language. The drugs take a distant third.
Then again, perhaps none of those would offend you as much as the political incorrectness. Yes, the blackface is there to make fun of people like Lazarus rather than real Black people, and Speedman's insensitive prior portrayal of a man with intellectual disability is no encore of There's Something About Mary, but the shock is still there. The fact that nearly all the Asians (exact nationality uncertain) are semicomical villains doesn't help either. I wouldn't say it's as dichotomous as Pitch Perfect 2, but be warned.
As a sendup of Hollywood, it works pretty well. It even opens, at least on DVD, with a fake ad and three fake trailers to give us a good idea of the four already famous actors' pasts (e.g., Speedman did campy, repetitive action flicks until he wanted an Oscar). I recognize many references to classics and nonclassics alike.
As a comedy overall, it's...OK. You need an edgy sense of humor, seeing as the bulk of the traumas would be far from funny in reality. And as is common for action comedies, it gets a little more serious as it goes along, albeit not enough to succeed in a serious capacity.
Did I gain anything that I hadn't gleaned from other sources? Maybe a bit. TT didn't sour my evening. It just didn't rise above my anticipation.
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