Written, produced and directed by Hollywood favourite Ben Stiller it's a comedy action thriller that gives an all-star cast the chance to show off their comic talents while running about with guns, playing soldiers and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

In the film desperate director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) is trying to make a Vietnam war movie.

Spiralling costs and difficulties with the cast push him to the edge and he decides to drop his pampered actors into the heart of the jungle telling them their progress will be filmed on hidden cameras.

Cockburn's stars include Stiller as an action hero who's starting to make bad career choices, Jack Black as an insecure low-brow comedy star going through heroin withdrawals, and Robert Downey Jr. as an Australian Oscar winner, so lost in his "craft" he underwent a procedure to become black for his role.

Unbeknown to the actors, they are dropped in the middle of the Golden Triangle, the home of the heroin-producing Flaming Dragon gang, who believe the actors to be DEA agents.

In the jungle, the actors remain under the delusion that they are still being filmed, even after they encounter the dangerous gang of druglords and even engage in a gunfight, despite the fact they only have blanks to fire at the heavily armed gang.

As the story continues our heroes irritate and annoy eachother, but must ultimately become the band of soldiers they are portraying if they are to survive.

The film's basic premise has popped up several times in films such as The Three Amigos! and Galaxy Quest.

Whereas those films were simply classic, slapstick overconfident bumbling idiot comedy, Tropic Thunder is made by people who have been working in Hollywood for years.

They make some cutting observations along the way and have produced a funny, raucous satire on big-budget filmmaking and the delusional narcissism of Hollywood actors.

What did you think of Tropic Thunder?

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