If it pleases the court, I’d like to enter a single statement into evidence before I proceed with a review of Tropic Thunder. My statement is as follows: Danny McBride is freaking awesome. Between his role in this movie, The Foot Fist Way, and his scene-stealing in Pineapple Express, he has entertained me more than anybody else this month. I would like to petition the court that the month of August be renamed, in perpetuity, “Danny McBride Month”. Motion carried.
With that out of the way, the review can continue. I think the best thing that could have happened to Tropic Thunder is the controversy over the use of the word “retard”. Robert Downey Jr.’s Kirk Lazarus and Ben Stiller’s Tugg Speedman use the word when discussing Tugg’s Simple Jack, “The worst movie ever filmed”. Considering that it’s a word used by two dumb guys discussing a bad movie, it’s not as shocking as the recent reports would have you believe. But that particular controversy helps the viewer overlook the fact that Robert Downey Jr. is black.
