Propelled by one of the strongest movie marketing campaigns of the summer from offering up fake documentary clips online to echo the film’s Apocalypse Now roots, becoming the subject of a mock E! True Hollywood Story, and producing enough posters and ads to fill a football field, as a film critic I’ve been bombarded by Tropic Thunder imagery for months.
There’s a risk when the Hollywood hype machine goes into overdrive that by the time the film comes out, it’ll have annoyed audiences so much that they won’t spend their hard earned money on tickets since they felt they’d seen it already (i.e. Adam Sandler’s Click) but there's also a flip-side. This was evidenced in 2008's best case scenario, specifically the smash success of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, that by billing itself the “event” movie of the summer, Knight's marketers actualized that self-fulfilling prophecy in ways nobody predicted with records broken by the minute.
While it will no doubt pale in comparison to Knight, Tropic Thunder arrives in theatres at a time when audiences who were inundated with comic book movies and action heroes from Iron Man to Indiana Jones sorely need a comedy. Yet cleverly, unlike Step Brothers which billed itself as straight comedy and Pineapple Express which startled audiences by its emphasis on action, Tropic Thunder hasn’t been bashful about what it wants to be — namely the ultimate action comedy of the summer. Using the war film paradigm, Stiller combines it with his favorite subject of the out-of-touch, egomaniacal industry in which he works to tell the story of spoiled actors starring in a Vietnam movie who find themselves the targets of a real battle. For Thunder, Stiller lampoons Hollywood and stereotypical action films in one fell swoop and while I felt the results were mixed, when it works — just like war is hell -- the film is as funny as hell.
However, just as clever as their marketing campaign has been, Tropic Thunder goes one better by serving up an Original Motion Picture Soundtrack that not only builds up anticipation for the film but revels in its off-the-wall humor as just looking over the track titles alone will send CD listeners into giggles.
Article comments
1 - dani
Just list the music credits so we all can get the music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 - Jen
Hi Dani,
Thanks for reading. In the 4th paragraph of the review, there's a link to click for the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack which takes you to the film soundtrack's official MySpace page, offering lots of goodies like sound clips and a track listing. Or you can click here.
Enjoy!
- Jen
3 - Derek Fleek
As you know, I didn't like the movie. However, the soundtrack was great.
4 - Jen
Thanks, Derek. I know-- some of it really cracked me up but I do think you and I were in sync. Film-wise we both preferred Pineapple Express!
5 - ferdinand
what is the name on the intro song in tropic thunder?
6 - Jen
On the soundtrack it's Crystal Method's "Name of the Game" remix. If you mean in the film itself, it would depend on the scene. I could be wrong but I believe one of the first songs we hear in that epic opening with all the explosions is "O Fortuna" which was recently used in those Gatorade "League of Clutch" ads last spring which featured Kevin Garnett but there's quite a few songs that play near the start of the film. Note: it's arriving on DVD in a few weeks so the final credits would be the ultimate resource (I'm reviewing Ben Stiller's 2-Disc Director's Cut soon on my site in the URL line).