I was a little bit nervous about this one. The last movie Ben Stiller directed (which, somehow, has its fan) was Zoolander, one of the ten or so movies in my entire life I’ve given NO STARS. I hated that movie with a passion when it opened. I’d probably hate on it less all these years later, but maybe not. So I went into Tropic Thunder with some trepidation. While the cast was terrific, the premise was solid, and the trailer was fairly promising, I still had my doubts. While this is a decent comedy, definitely a step up for Stiller as a director, I rarely laughed, and found that most of the middle dragged on and on. The set-up is the best part, as we’re introduced to our three lead characters (played by Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr) with trailers promoting their new movies. A trailer with Downey Jr. and Tobey Maguire had me in tears. There was nowhere else for the movie to go but down from there, and down it went. The beginning scenes of the movie, showing the making of the production, are entertaining enough, but once the cast gets dropped down in the midst of the jungle and have to fend for themselves, we get scene after scene of people walking and talking, walking and talking, and it rarely includes material that I found funny. A scene, for example, where Downey Jr. explains just how retarded you can play to win an Oscar is, frankly, tired stuff. And it doesn’t really move anything along. The “plot” gets bogged down with way too much emphasis on a retarded character that Stiller played in a previous movie and now has to reprise for a group of people. Downey Jr is great in the movie, but his initial joke wears thin quickly and it’s not until his role reversal at the very end where I found his character re-deeming. Some of the funniest moments in the movie come from Matthew McConaughey, of all people, as Stiller’s agent, while the much-hyped Tom Cruise cameo is very much over-rated. I can’t believe claims that people didn’t know it was Cruise until the end credits. Really, people? Come on. You can tell it’s him from his first shot. The resolution is also way too quick, with the “Academy Awards” scene at the end. I was hoping for some more material there. But I loved the look of the movie, all the special effects and stunt-work, and the ensemble works fairly well together. Jay Baruchel, who’s appeared in films like Million Dollar Baby and Knocked Up, is very funny as the younger member of the acting ensemble. There’s some good material here, but overall, I found Tropic Thunder a disappointment and a missed opportunity.