Normally I hate it when reviewers say things like "If you're not familiar with the genre, this movie isn't for you." It always sounded pretentious to me. But in the case of "Tropic Thunder," if you're not familiar with war movies, you're not going to get as much out of the movie, and if you're not familiar with the movie business (at least to the point of catching the E! network every now and then and reading Entertainment Weekly when you can) then you're not going to be as amused as I was about the movie biz talk featured prominently here. When I first saw the previews for this movie I wasn't paying much attention so I initially thought the movie was a comedy about the Vietnam war, and I wasn't amused, but I later learned the genius behind this concept: this is a movie about a crew shooting a movie about the Vietnam war. Shiny. This gives the filmmakers a chance to lampoon everything that is over-the-top and cliché in war movies as well as sending a big "fuck you" to the Hollywood machine that churns out these big pretentious event films every year.

The first staple of Hollywood convention that gets attacked here is the slew of pretentious trailers that play at the beginning of every movie we watch in the theater. It took me a second to figure out that the trailer was fake, but after that it had me laughing so hard I was in tears. This is a must-see. They'd better include this trailer with the DVD release. It's pretentious and overly poetic and evocative of similar trailers for movies like "Atonement" that made you want to hate the movie before it was even released. Good job guys, way to draw the audience in. The next aspect of filmmaking that gets attacked right away is the overpaid, spoiled stars of Hollywood movies. The stars of "Tropic Thunder" (the movie within a movie) make ridiculous demands and shut down shooting on a whim when they don't feel like finishing scenes, and they bicker amongst themselves, picking apart each other and their careers. Ben Stiller plays Tugg Speedman, a big action star who shot to fame with the brainless action pic "Scorcher" and has since made three increasingly less successful sequels. He tried his hand at serious acting recently by playing a mentally retarded farmhand and the film flopped, so "Tropic Thunder" is important to him to revitalize his career.

Robert Downey Jr. is the real star here. He plays the over-the-top crazy method actor Kirk Lazarus who is known for getting insanely into character and refusing to drop character until he's recorded the DVD commentary track for his films. In "Tropic Thunder" he underwent a "pigment alteration" surgery in order to play a black man, and his overenthusiastic and hilariously racist portrayal makes the film all the more enjoyable for subversive types like me.

You see, the studio soon tired of the spoiled antics of its stars and the overblown budget of the film, so they set a deadline for the director of the picture: finish the film or you're fired. Furious at the possibility of losing this picture, the director snaps and sends the actors out into the fields of Vietnam, telling them that they are going to shoot the film guerrilla style (no cuts, no trailers, no amenities, just straight up method acting and blowing through the script as fast as possible). So the actors, one cameraman, and the eccentric director in charge of delivering this picture head off into the woods without the aid of the rest of the crew.

Unfortunately, several of the stars soon get captured by a violent group of Vietnamese insurgents, and they are so delirious at this point that they think this is all part of the film when actually, they are being captured and tortured for real. Uh oh. The remainder of the film is an exercise in manipulation. The filmmakers see how many people they can offend without pissing people off enough to lose their audience. Without giving away too many plot points, let me say that everything from terrorist negotiation to drug rehabilitation to US stars adopting kids from other countries is fodder for the comedy machine, while Kirk Lazarus stays firmly in character until neither he nor the audience can take it anymore. Every war movie cliché is exploited and exposed for how ridiculous it can be, and as much as I love war movies, I gotta say I appreciate that. The next time I watch "The Deer Hunter" and I'm sinking into the deep depression that movie always causes in me, I think I'll pop in this movie. It's the perfect antidote to taking yourself (and anything else, even war) too seriously.

From the opening scene mocking the "teary farewell from a dying soldier" to the comic "last stand" faced by the characters at the end, this movie had me in stitches. I couldn't believe how far it would go to get a laugh, and I couldn't wait to see what it would mock next. Take that, you overly PC society, afraid to say anything that might offend anyone, this movie doesn't give a fuck what you think, it's going to make whatever jokes present themselves and it's going to have fun doing it. That's the sign of a comedy worth watching.