It begins with a fantastically overblown spoof of Platoon, and it ends with probably the funniest closing gag in movie trailer history. Remember when the dog leaping out the second-story window in There’s Something About Mary could provoke stunned laughter? We’ve coarsened over the last decade. My God, have we coarsened.
This is the Richard Roma of red-band trailers: it’s an emphatic, profane, go-for-broke deal closer, and it wipes out any reticence over Ben Stiller’s recent filmography. The comedic genius who gave us “Woody Allen’s Bride of Frankenstein” – the best, and only, Husbands and Wives parody you’ll ever see – is back. The velocity’s returned to Stiller’s fast ball; even the cheap shots at what’s become of Eddie Murphy (via a funny-again Jack Black) land with a little extra zip.
I’m not going to sit here and spoil the several killer gags in this trailer (hosted through iTunes, just so’s you knows); instead, I’ll let you watch it and spoil it for all your friends. Tropic Thunder is out August 15th. How ’bout an early screening, everyone who hates me at DreamWorks?
(Thanks to message board poster “Will Kane” for passing this along.)