Movies

Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire couldn't be any more "inside-baseball" if it contained references to the infield fly rule and Rule 5 draft picks. This movie-within-a-movie is certainly his most ambitious production as a director and it contains some of the biggest belly laughs of his career.

But while it blends comedy and action sequences far skillfully and seamlessly, after a while the whole endeavor winds up feeling feels overwrought and repetitive.

Stiller co-wrote the script with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, produced and stars as Tugg Speedman, an increasingly irrelevant action hero who now leads the ensemble cast of the Vietnam War epic Tropic Thunder. When Tugg and his equally pampered cast mates turn out to be too distracted to commit to the production, and costs start spiraling out of control, the first-time director (Steve Coogan) leads them into the jungle to bond and fend for themselves.

But what they think is a carefully crafted exercise in make-believe turns out to be all too real.

Robert Downey Jr. takes the humor to a daring, inspired level with his hilarious turn as an Australian method actor who undergoes skin-pigmentation surgery to play a black soldier.