Tropic Thunder

(USA/Germany, 2008, 106 minutes)

A bunch of Hollywood stars shooting a war movie on location are left in the jungle on their own and find themselves up against a drug-dealing operation, but think that it's part of the filming schedule. Noisy and generally not very funny all-star satire of modern Hollywood that has the premise and the cast down pat but fails to develop script and characters beyond the limp joke.

Dreamworks Pictures presents a Red Hour production; in association with Goldcrest Pictures; in association with International Film Production Stella-del-Sud Second. Starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.; Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Brandon T. Jackson, Bill Hader; introducing Brandon Soo Hoo; Reggie Lee, Trieu Tran; with Matthew McConaughey; and Tom Cruise as Les Grossman. Directed by Ben Stiller; produced by Stuart Cornfeld, Ben Stiller, Eric McLeod; screenplay by Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller and Etan Cohen, based on a story by Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux; music by Theodore Shapiro; director of photography (DeLuxe prints, Panavision), John Toll; production designer, Jeff Mann; costume designer, Marlene Stewart; film editor, Greg Hayden; visual effects supervisor, Michael Fink.