Movie review; Tropic Thunder

I usually never go see war movies, unless it's Sci-Fi or a comedy. Tropic Thunder definitely falls in the later category. Very funny movie, starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black & Robert Downey Jr. Three different actors, but they work great together. Nick Nolte, Brandon T. Jackson and Jay Baruchel also have a strong presence and Tom Cruise has a fairly short role, but it's much more then a cameo. Talking of cameos, there are many short ones in this movie, so don't blink!

I laughed a lot during this movie. It's about actors that are sent in a jungle to experience more realistic conditions of war, so they can better understand their roles. Of course, they get stuck in a much more real war then they intended. It's a movie within a movie type of scenario at the begining, but 'their' movie is no longer going on, until the end of 'our' movie, but they think they are, at least most of them... Did I lose you? Many very funny situations, some of them a bit controversial in real life, but let's face it: Who would expect a politically correct story from this?

Regarding Tom Cruise, you have never seen him like this, I guarantee you that! Actually, with the heavy makeup, he's hardly recognizable. If I didn't knew he was playing that character, I just might have not noticed he was in the movie until I would have seen his name in the credits.

There is some violence, but mostly in a humourous way, of course, strong language and mature subjects. Not a family movie, you have been warned. But if you are mature (at least legally), like to laugh and haven't seen it yet, I think you will enjoy Tropic Thunder.

Movie review: Iron Man

While it's not quite summer yet, the "summer movies blockbusters" season as started! Iron Man is sure to be a big hit and will be followed by not only sequels, but "spinoffs", in a way. It looks great (ILM being one of the special effects studio involved surely helped), has a great story, lots of action & humour, good acting and is fairly realistic. On that last point, I don't expect to see a real life Iron Man flying around anytime soon, but it could be possible with technology from the near future to create a suit with most of the features that Tony Stark engineered.

Of course, I expected action and I got that in this movie. There is also a good amount of humour, but it doesn't interfere with the story. No slapstick or one-liners with nothing to do with the scene. This movie will be used as a reference when judging other superheroes movies for sure.

Other movies are betting on Iron Man's success, as I saw many previews before the movie, some new, some newer versions.

If you usually don't stay until the very end of movies, I would suggest you do this time, as there is a scene after the end of the credits. I'm not going to spoil it here, so if you want to know what it's about, you will have to see it for yourself or get it from somewhere else on the net.

The movie star Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark / Iron Man), Jeff Bridges (Obadiah Stane / Iron Monger), Gwyneth Paltrow (Virginia "Pepper" Potts), Terrence Howard (Jim Rhodes), among others. It is directed by Jon Favreau, who gave himself a short role in the movie. Of course, there is a short cameo from Stan Lee...