Machete vs. Scorcher
I watched Tropic Thunder with the folks. Padre was under the mistaken belief that it would be the perfect movie for mother to watch. Cue an opening scene where people are blown up, a man’s hands are reduced to charred stumps, and all manner of grotesque imagery. Still, I don’t think it was quite as all-around shocking to her as, say, Team America: World Police. Great wisdom on picking that one, father!
It wasn’t bad – I’d seen the trailer back when it first came out and it looked quite promising, and the concept of these actors being pitted in a real war zone sounds like a good premise, but… eh, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem as good as it should’ve been. Some good laughs, but quite often it came across as lacklustre and yawn-inducing. Jack Black’s character didn’t seem to serve any purpose aside from cheap drug humour, though him trying to wrestle with a buffalo was about the only good thing he achieved. I’ve a feeling that the version we were watching was cut, as judging by quotes from IMDb and TV Tropes it looks like there was some scenes and dialogue cut out – I definitely don’t remember Robert Downey Jr. saying “I’m a lead farmer, motherfucker!”, a loss I am quite saddened by.
For an on-a-whim watch I could certainly have watched worse things, but for a comedy movie it came across as rather slow and plodding half the time. Tom Cruise completely freakin’ stole the show, mind you – it’s probably the best role I’ve seen him in, but there wasn’t enough of him to totally redeem the film. Maybe watching the uncut version would make it a little more entertaining, but I’m in no rush. Not a failure, but not impressive either.
Today’s observation: What’s the deal with passworded WinRar files, eh? You give it a password and it extracts the whole file, but if it’s incorrect then it waits until after it extracts the whole damn file before telling you it was wrong. Wonderful priorities you got there, fella.
