Tropic Thunder

I'm being haunted by that same trick again, that absurdity in movies where on the front you've got some heavy drama going on (well kinda drama, dude basically laughed internally about his friend getting his limbs blown off but whatever) and in the background there's some dumbass hanging from a helicopter just spraying bullets everywhere and laughing his ass off. Like it's so absurd you don't even know what to do as a viewer. Laugh, cry, or just sit there staring at the screen frozen. Cause on one hand they're showing you ripped off limbs and most people would probably puke, but on the other hand if you look at the background you could actually laugh cause it looks so fuckin stupid. That kind of absurd contrast kinda pulls you in even more. I mean look, one dude's blowing up a forest while screaming "protect the environment god dammit", the director's jumping around like an idiot cause he doesn't know what he wants, the actors are screaming nonsense, everything's going to shit, but you gotta admit that stupid contrasting absurdity is what makes the movie interesting Still while watching you can tell it's meta cinema and all the stuff going wrong isn't actually the movie itself Also gotta mention the circular structure, the scene at the beginning repeats at the end but this time in real events I'm not gonna list every funny or absurd moment cause there's too many, but this movie definitely won't let you get bored cause something's always happening, constantly, never a second where the viewer can zone out. And even with all that constant action it never feels overloaded or unnecessary. The movie keeps you entertained and engaged by constantly switching things up, action with one group, pure nonsense with another character who's gone off the rails, moral dilemmas with the ones stuck in the city. Different approaches, same result, tension never drops And of course it's interesting how sometimes you can do impossible things just through belief. The actors thought it was all just a movie, just filming, not real, and they pulled off things that should be impossible, not even being professional soldiers. Just actors and a janitor taking down heavily armed drug dealers. That couldn't happen, but the movie isn't trying to pretend it could. It's clear to the viewer that everything's nonsense, the characters are nonsense, the script is nonsense, the dialogue is nonsense, but somehow it all works. Add to that some kickass acting and jokes, dumb jokes but always at the right time and on point And yeah McConaughey's character showed up right at the end at the perfect moment (it's a miracle he didn't get himself killed honestly) Oh my god was that Tom Cruise?? I saw him in the cast but I didn't even recognize him on screen. Holy shit I will say at the beginning when McConaughey first showed up I kinda froze and just sat there like a dumbass like uhhhh and completely forgot about the movie itself, just staring at him. Had to snap out of it cause the movie's actually good. Got that combo going, my favorite actor plus a genuinely fun movie for an ESTP personality type, right up my alley