Screen Rant » tropic thunder

Ben Stiller Continuing ‘Tropic Thunder’ Tradition With ‘Fake Trailer Project’

Kofi Outlaw — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:33:07 +0000

Did you love those fake trailers that ran before Tropic Thunder? If so, there is good news to share with you.

Fans of Ben Stiller’s movie industry spoof are certainly going to be glad to hear that the actor’s Red Hour Digital label is going to be producing a dozen or so new faux movie trailers, to be released on a weekly basis online.

The project is called…The Fake Trailer Project, and at the moment Stiller and Red Hour Digital are trying to secure a distribution partner for the online rollout. According to Deadline, TFTP will try to draw some famous celebrities to take part in the fun, though no big-names have been floated yet. The Tropic Thunder faux trailers featured the film’s cast – Jack ...

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Tom Cruise’s ‘Tropic Thunder’ Spin-Off Has a Script

Chris Schrader — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:19:01 +0000

A few years ago, Tom Cruise stopped being famous for starring in blockbuster movies and was instead making headlines because of his erratic behavior and controversial opinions on hot-button topics. Amidst concerns that his real life persona could be affecting the box office potential of his films, Cruise worked out a career strategy that would help put him back in the moviegoing public’s good graces.

Part of that plan involved taking a small, but memorable role in Ben Stiller’s action/comedy Tropic Thunder. Cruise was originally approached to play Stiller’s agent in the film, but he asked if the filmmakers would consider adding a foul-mouthed studio head character to the story instead.

Stiller agreed and he and Cruise created Les Grossman – a Harvey Weinstein-esque hot-head that wound up stealing nearly every scene he was ...

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Screen Rant’s Best Shared Movie Moments

Mike Eisenberg — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:42:04 +0000

Christopher Nolan’s Inception has been the topic of discussion for over three weeks now. Many are talking about the torturous ending that left audience members gasping and trying to retrace their steps. In hindsight of that awesome moment, I’ve rounded up the troops here at Screen Rant and asked each writer to describe their favorite shared audience movie theater moment.

[This Next Part Contains Inception Ending SPOILERS]

I’ve never experienced a shared moment in the movie theater quite like that last frame of Inception. The entire film captured everybody’s attention, keeping them on the edge of their seats eager for more. The last few minutes gave Inception its emotional core, after an extended action set piece that put most other summer films to shame.

However, when that top started spinning with subtle shakes and shimmers, ...

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Iconic Moment In Cinema: Downey & Rourke in ‘Iron Man 2′

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:42:13 +0000

There are certain moments in cinema that stand out as being truly iconic. Sometimes it’s a line of dialogue that goes on to become a revered quote – other times it’s a scene, or a song or even the opening credits (see: Star Wars).

However, sometimes an iconic moment in cinema is achieved with nothing more than the presence of the actors onscreen – a moment where the context, history and personality the actors bring to the table transcends the actual movie itself. Moments where life supersedes art, yet still moves us in the way great art does.

This summer’s action movie throwback, The Expendables, is trying to cash in on the thrill of seeing some of action’s greatest badasses – Stallone, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Statham, Li, Lundgren – trading fists, knives and bullets. For me, no ...

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Tom Cruise Talks Les Grossman Spin-off Movie

Rob Frappier — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:31:01 +0000

If you didn’t get your fill of Les Grossman at this year’s MTV Movie Awards, don’t worry, because Tom Cruise may soon reprise the role in his very own spin-off movie. After taking the stage as Grossman for a show-stealing performance alongside Jennifer Lopez, Cruise told Marc Malkin at E! Online that he and his producing partners are “working on” the movie right now.

I love Tropic Thunder, and I really love the character of Les Grossman, but I’m not sure I love the idea of a Les Grossman solo movie. Realistically, how do you construct a film around a character like that? The Grossman shtick is hilarious, but only in small doses. Could you watch Les Grossman scream at people and do funky dances to Ludicris songs for a full 90 minutes?

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Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman ‘Advises’ Twilight Stars

Rob Frappier — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:59:03 +0000

Last week, MTV released two new promos for this year’s MTV Movie Awards featuring Tom Cruise’s popular character, Les Grossman, from the 2008 Ben Stiller blockbuster Tropic Thunder. In the promos, Grossman, whose profanity-laced outbursts were one of the best parts of Tropic Thunder, offers hilariously questionable advice (and abuse) to the stars of the Twilight franchise, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

It’s nice to see Tom Cruise back in character for these MTV promos. When you talk about Tropic Thunder, the conversation almost always centers around his performance and Robert Downey Jr.’s, and rightfully so. That film single-handedly reminded the world just how awesome Tom Cruise can be when he’s not busy jumping on Oprah’s couch or criticizing psychotherapy on national news programs.

Check out the videos below.

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Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman ‘Advises’ Twilight Stars

10 DVD/Blu-ray Audio Commentaries You Have To Hear

Mike Eisenberg — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:07:14 +0000

While most people buy a DVD or Blu-ray and first watch the movie, some go straight for the commentaries. This may sound strange to you, but once you start listening to the directors, actors, and producers speak about their film, you get a chance to not only learn about the filmmaking process, but have a few laughs as well.

Considering many of you may be in the dark about this wonderful gem hidden in the depths (just change the audio track) of your DVD or Blu-ray, I’m here to enlighten you as you continue on your path of movie-watching greatness. So, let’s take a look at my ten favorite commentary tracks that I think you have to hear.

10) Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt – Ocean’s ...

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End Of Year Discussion – December 31, 2008

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:01:38 +0000

It’s Wednesday so it’s time for our weekly open discussion, but as it happens this one is hitting on the last day of 2008! Can you believe this year is over already?

And what an incredible year it’s been for movies… 2008 was a banner year for superhero movie fans with the likes of The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Hellboy 2, and yes – even Hancock and Punisher: War Zone.

Other great genre films included Rambo, Cloverfield (do you even remember that opened this year?!), Tropic Thunder, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kung Fu Panda and more.

Of course we’ve had our share of not so hot movies this year like The Happening, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Meet Dave, Meet the Spartans, X-Files, etc. Then there those we were looking forward to ...

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Golden Globe Nominations: Little Love For The Dark Knight

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:35:24 +0000

The 2009 Golden Globe Nominations have been officially announced and it looks like The Dark Knight has been almost totally snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

That’s right folks, The Dark Knight received just one nomination: a Best Supporting Actor nod for Heath Ledger’s groundbreaking (and freaky) turn as The Joker. No Best Director nomination for Chris Nolan; no Best Screenplay nomination for Chris and Jonathan Nolan; no Best Original Score nomination (although Dark Knight composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are both nominated in that category for work on two other films).

So, want to see which films stole the slots that rightfully belong to TDK? Check out the list of the 2009 Golden Globe Nominees in film:

BEST DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR (DRAMA)
Leonardo DiCaprio – ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 14, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:49:16 +0000

Here we are again with another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up where we look at the weekend box office and furnish you with any film news that may have slipped through the cracks.

This week:

We see who 20th Century Fox lined up to replace Gavin Hood during the shoot of Wolverine; Paul Verhoeven returns to the world of erotic thrillers; it looks like Akira may be a while off; Michael Douglas is Libarace; Ray Winstone is the new Robert DeNiro and there’s more money ahoy for Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp.

Box Office

This weekend it’s a close battle between Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys and the Clooney-Pitt combo Burn After Reading. Both films grossed around $6 million on Friday and they should be on course for $18-20 million over the weekend. The Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro thriller Righteous Kill should manage around $16 million, while chick-flick The Women should bank around $11 million by Monday ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 31, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:04:44 +0000

I can’t believe that it’s now the end of August! Soon the winter blockbusters will be knocking at our door and the next thing you know it’ll be Oscar time again. Where does time go? Is it playing like a re-run somewhere, can you just flick to another dimension to a time where you are still awaiting a fourth Indiana Jones movie? Who knows, but I do know that it’s another Weekend Movie News Wrap up featuring a new aspect: a weekend box office update.

This week:

After our box office round-up we see what George Clooney and Jason Reitman are doing Up in the Air, we find out what former superhero is joining the Toy Story franchise, we look at who might be helming the Poltergeist movie and the Voltron film and what is new on the Inglorious Bastards casting front.

Weekend Box Office

It looks like Tropic Thunder will retain its box ...

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Will Tropic Thunder Defeat The Dark Knight?

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:28:13 +0000

Seriously, I’m asking: will Tropic Thunder, the much-hyped comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. (in black face, no less,) really have enough, well, thunder, to knock The Dark Knight out of its top spot at the box office on its one-month anniversary?

If you think about it, Tropic Thunder has a lot of the same things going for it that Dark Knight did:

A) Controversy. Dark Knight had the morose intrigue of Heath Ledger’s final cinematic turn as THE Joker of our time. Tropic Thunder has two major controversies surrounding it: Robert Downey Jr.’s stereotypical portrayal of an African-American, complete with black-face, and, what some “activists” are alleging is the film’s overly-cruel mockery of mentally challenged people. (Regarding Downey in black-face: as a part of that club, I ...

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Tropic Thunder: Will Boycotts Hurt Or Help?

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:51:53 +0000

Man, I didn’t see this one coming.

Back in March when the photo of Robert Downey Jr as a black man appeared online, I figured the big outcry against Tropic Thunder would revolve around racism. While there has been some talk of “blackface” and how offensive it is in the trailers, by far the most attention has been focused on the use of the word “retard” in the film and the character “Simple Jack” from the fictional film of the same name.

While there have been a lot of posts online slamming any boycott of the film, Cole over at Film School Rejects wrote a post that while not pro-boycott, at least made an attempt at showing the point of view of folks who ...

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Tropic Thunder Review

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:00:15 +0000

Short version: Tropic Thunder is crass, gross and rude – but it’s also funny as hell.

Screen Rant reviews Tropic Thunder

Can i make this any more clear?

Leave. The kids. At Home.

Ok, got it? Let’s move on.

For adults, and for further clarification: Adults that don’t mind rude, crass humor – Tropic Thunder is a VERY funny movie.

One of the few problems with Tropic Thunder is that it starts out so damned funny that the rest of the movie has a hard time living up to those opening scenes. The film opens with a montage of clips that introduce the audience to the actors in the film. When I say “actors” I don’t mean Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. – I mean the actors they portray in the film (in matching order to the previous list): ...

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Movie Grab Bag – August 6, 2008

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:35:55 +0000

We get busy, we miss stuff. Here are some of the items of note that didn’t get individual posts today…

- Seth Rogen won’t be a fat Green Hornet. (Super Hero Hype)

- Maybe Goonies 2 isn’t on track after all. (Cinematical)

- Kevin Smith’s Porno gets an R rating. (AP)

- Natalie Portman feels bad she hasn’t been in a remake, remedies situation. (Bloody Disgusting)

- Paramount caves in to political correctness on Tropic Thunder. (Movies Online)

- Castle Wolfenstein is not dead. (Sci Fi Wire)

- Lexi Alexander says “Now, if I would have real balls a picture of me mooning the vicious cyber world would follow, but unfortunately I haven’t had time to workout, so it wouldn’t be a pretty sight.” after movie sites rise up saying that it was terrible that she was supposedly fired from Punisher: War Zone. (Lexi Alexander) [If ...

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Comic-Con ’08: Day 4 Wrap Up

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 09:27:57 +0000

Doug Nagy from TheMovieBlog.com, Alex Billington from Firstshowing.net and me with the three stars of Bitch Slap at the Wrath of Con party

Another day at Comic-Con, another sore rear end from the uncomfortable seats in Hall H…

Today’s events included watching the Season 3 premiere episode of Heroes, which was a huge unexpected bonus. It looks like the show is getting its mojo back and if you’re a fan you’re really going to like it when it returns this Fall.

The Lost panel was attended by the executive producers (who revealed next to nothing) and Matthew Fox (who said almost nothing). They did manage to entertain the crowd, but overall it was cotton candy: a lot of fluff but not very nourishing.

One of the big surprises was how awesome the new Terminator Salvation ...

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Comic-Con ’08: Day 3 Wrap Up

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:14:00 +0000

Gotta tell you guys, we’re having a blast. Somehow this year I’m relaxing more yet getting more posts out about the goings-on here at Comic-Con. Here’s a bit of a wrap up of yesterday (since it’s 3AM and no longer Friday).

I’ve enjoyed seeing some of my online movie buds in person again. Nice to actually hang out instead of just exchanging emails, Twitters and IMs.

The biggie: Attended the Watchmen panel and got to see new footage. Awesome.

Saw a bunch of trailers, most of which I’d seen. One I hadn’t seen was for Hamlet 2 and while I’ve heard the movie is great (it premiered at Sundance but I missed it), I thought the trailer made the movie look absolutely stupid.

Saw the first footage from The Wolfman and ...

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More Tropic Thunder Websites Plus Early Release Date

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:01:30 +0000

The campaign is ramping up big time for the big summer comedy (that might actually turn out to be funny) Tropic Thunder. A week ago we told you about the Rain of Madness website which promotes a fake documentary about the film (it’s very funny and well worth checking out, BTW), and now we have a slew of additional ones for you.

TuggSpeedman.com

SimpleJackMovie.com

ScorcherMovie.com

This gets a bit confusing. The websites are dedicated to actor that Ben Stiller plays in the film and his other (fictional) projects. So Tugg Speedman is the name of the actor Ben Stiller plays in Tropic Thunder, but not the name of the character that “Tugg Speedman” is playing in the movie within the movie.

Got it? Good.

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Tropic Thunder Goes Viral With Rain Of Madness

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:34:55 +0000

It looks like The Dark Knight isn’t the only movie production that knows how to go viral: Tropic Thunder is trying it’s hand as well with a website touting a documentary about the making of Tropic Thunder. The kicker is that the “documentary” Rain of Madness treats what happens in Tropic Thunder as actual, real events.

There’s an introduction on the website from the “director” which starts this way:

“Hallö.
I am German born filmmaker Jan Jürgen. I am writing to you from Vietnam, after documenting the making of a Hollywood classic called, ‘Tropic Thunder.’ While the actors and filmmakers try to tell their story of heroism set in the chaos of the Vietnam War, I too will be telling a story. One that has never, until now, been told. A story that I have wanted to tell since I ...

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MTV Tropic Thunder Clip

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:56:09 +0000

From the MTV Movie Awards (which I never bother watching… way too “hip” for me, thanks) comes this “viral” promotional clip for Tropic Thunder. It starts out great with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black. They manage to pull both Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda into a promo piece for Stiller’s film pretty creatively.

However, to me this is an example of one of the problems with comedy these days: Not knowing when to quit. I thought it was really quite funny for about the first minute and a half, but then it goes on for about another 2-3 full minutes and it literally beats the point of the skit into the ground. Overkill IMHO.

Plus watching Stiller kowtow to a stereotypical bored, disconnected teenager annoyed the heck out of me. On the other hand I really ...

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Screen Rant » tropic thunder

Ben Stiller Continuing ‘Tropic Thunder’ Tradition With ‘Fake Trailer Project’

Tom Cruise’s ‘Tropic Thunder’ Spin-Off Has a Script

Screen Rant’s Best Shared Movie Moments

Iconic Moment In Cinema: Downey & Rourke in ‘Iron Man 2′

Tom Cruise Talks Les Grossman Spin-off Movie

Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman ‘Advises’ Twilight Stars

10 DVD/Blu-ray Audio Commentaries You Have To Hear

10) Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt – Ocean’s ...Click to continue reading 10 DVD/Blu-ray Audio Commentaries You Have To Hear

End Of Year Discussion – December 31, 2008

Golden Globe Nominations: Little Love For The Dark Knight

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 14, 2008

Box Office

Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: August 31, 2008

Will Tropic Thunder Defeat The Dark Knight?

Tropic Thunder: Will Boycotts Hurt Or Help?

Tropic Thunder Review

Movie Grab Bag – August 6, 2008

Comic-Con ’08: Day 4 Wrap Up

Comic-Con ’08: Day 3 Wrap Up

More Tropic Thunder Websites Plus Early Release Date

Tropic Thunder Goes Viral With Rain Of Madness

MTV Tropic Thunder Clip

10) Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt – Ocean’s ...

Click to continue reading 10 DVD/Blu-ray Audio Commentaries You Have To Hear