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Tropic Thunder, or Watchmen?

Poland, this shit better not be about HOUSE BUNNY. That's like *my* TDK.

So... gotta be Step Brothers, Tropic Thunder, or Pineapple Express... can't be Swing Vote, can it?

TROPIC THUNDER sucks, huh?

"The movie is likely to open pretty well thanks to a very aggressive marketing campaign"

Assuming you are talking about Tropic Thunder, it's also likely to have great legs. It's getting great reviews across the board. This is the second coming of Iron Man for David Poland.

No, DP's right on this one. Lots of funny ideas, no follow-through... Plays kind of like a slightly funnier, inside-baseball Zohan.

Tom Cruise is actually the best part. End credits made my head spin.

Man, I actually like three of the movies on that list. Mystery Men, interestingly enough, had the idea of a superhero and a PR agent long before Hancock. Johnny Dangerously and Club Paradise are two moves I watched so much as a kid, I quote them pretty often: "My mother hung me on a hook once...once!"

And whenever anyone asks what we're having for breakfast, I tell them, "we're having breakfast 'jump up.' Jump up and get it yourself."

The script for MYSTERY MEN was terrific. The release version eliminated many great scenes.

"I shovel well."

Noah, I agree with you. Johnny Dangerously is a childhood classic of mine.

If TROPIC THUNDER (or whatever else) is as good as MYSTERY MEN, count me the hell in. Mystery Men rules. A little overdirected, but apart from that it holds up well to repeat viewing. That time period where Stiller did Zero Effect, There's Something About Mary, Mystery Men, Keeping the Faith, Zoolander, and The Royal Tenenbaums... truly an excellent run (even if Meet the Parents was in there too).

I can't believe it's Pineapple express. The trailers are hilarious and it looks like if you liked Superbad, you'll love this.

From the trailer, Thunder looks funny, but also like it could be a self-indulgent ego driven in-joke which only stars or those in the industry laugh at.

I almost want to see Pineapple Express purely because the ads include MIA's genius "Paper Planes". Alas...

I agree with Jeff and Noah. Johnny Dangerously is a fan-fave in my hood. Friends and I have been known to bust out an "icehole" from time to time.

If David finds this movie to be an EPIC FAIL. Well, really, David has been off this Summer. Thus the reason for me throwing in a fast-ball reference.

Nevertheless, bring on some nice comedy, because I already have the Bat and the Robot. I will be feeling pretty good about things for months to come.

Pineapple Express hardly features "can't-miss talent." James Franco has turned in more than one awful performance in his time, and Seth Rogen is no master thespian either.

Danny McBride, however, is genius, every time.

LYT: how dare you reference CITY BY THE SEA! James needed to do that money. HE HAD LOAN PAYMENTS! Shame, man. Shame.

Movie for Money, but you should get the point. HE NEEDED SOME CASH! Those fancy art films do not pay for themselves, man! THEY DO NOT PAY FOR THEMSELVES!

"When you can balance a tack hammer on your head, you will have a balanced attack."
"We must be like the wolf pack, not like the six-pack."

Fork you!

I can't believe it is Pineapple Express, mostly because I have read the script and it is action/comedy genius.

Don't know about "Tropic Thunder," but I seriously doubt it's "Step Brother" or "Pineapple" -- both are really funny. I'm not sure it meets the trunkful-of-money criteria, but maybe "Burn After Reading?"

I can see the first four movies being seen as cant miss since they had stars that were either up and coming or firmly established(Stiller after Mary, Keaton after Mr. Mom with Heckerling following up Fast Times, Murphy at the pinnacle of his fame, and Williams directed by Ramis who looked like a comedy genius at the time). But Young Doctors In Love? Was anyone thinking this was going to be a hit?

I've seen Swing Vote, Tropic Thunder, and Pineapple Express already (seriously, why are they doing preview screenings 3 weeks ahead of time? Do the marketing people take August off?)

Swing Vote is good. Near miss of perfect I'd say.
Tropic Thunder is pretty solid. I wasn't laughing out loud, but it was decent.
Pineapple Express I think was about 30 minutes too long. But as someone who has never smoked weed, I think that's where I lost a lot of the humor.

Kamikaze - as great as that Paper Planes trailer is, the song is not in the movie. (That trailer is what made me decide this was a movie I wanted to see. It truly is a perfectly edited trailer)

My guess is that he's talking about Tropic Thunder, but to me it would be Pineapple Express that missed the train.

Who here likes Johnny Dangerously who didn't grow up with it?

I've never seen it.

You fargin sneaky bastage. I'm gonna take your dwork. I'm gonna nail it to the wall. I'm gonna crush your boils in a meat grinder. I'm gonna cut off your arms. I'm gonna shove 'em up your icehole. Dirty son-a-ma-batches. My own club!

It's funny, IO... the only movie I think there is any serious concensus against my opinion on, all summer long, is Iron Man. And even then, smart people agree with what I have said, even they liked the movie in spite of it.

I would say that I have been pretty dead on this summer.

AND as for Young Doctors, it came in the wake of Airplane, Sean Young was coming off of Blade Runner (that same summer) and Stripes, McKean was expected to take off from playing dumb on Laverne & Shirley, Michael Elias had written on The Jerk, and Gerry Marshall was extremely TV hot. In its moment, it was a film that carried high expectations and was filled with that generations hopefuls. By mid-summer, you are right, expectations had fallen.

My guess is Tropic Thunder as well. The hints are the phrase "lots of talent" and a "trunkful of money". While it could be Pineapple Express, I don't think Sony put that much money, compared to Tropic Thunder, into it.

I've been skeptical of TT. I'll admit a sneaky desire to see it. But something about that trailer... sort of reminds me of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Which I couldn't wait to see, and couldn't wait for it to be over while watching it.

Johnny Dangerously was one of those HBO / Comedy Central films that was on ALL. THE. TIME. I've seen it start to finish at least 10 times. And for a nerdy junior high kid, I enjoyed it.

Someone with too much hubris stated; "It's funny, IO... the only movie I think there is any serious consensus against my opinion on, all summer long, is Iron Man. And even then, smart people agree with what I have said, even they liked the movie in spite of it.

I would say that I have been pretty dead on this summer."

The smart movie who clearly did not even get the plot of Iron-Man like you? Really? Smart people?

If we are rating people as being smart based off of your assessments. Well, really David, do I have to bring up Peter Berg? You are as far off as you have ever been, and you could not even carry it. Let alone step to me in such a fashion. You crack me up. I guess there really is not country for some people like you.

"And even then, smart people agree with what I have said..."

Heh. Cool that you can make fun of yourself at times. "Smart people agree with me!!!!"

Can you imagine if someone actually thought that way?

Jesus... I didn't say "anyone who is smart agrees with me." What I was saying is that there are some people, who are smart people, who agree with the things I wrote about the film... and still liked it much more than I did.

And IO, Mr Ownership, will being the second biggest movie of the summer make Peter Berg ok with you? I mean, what is you criteria? Either it's you opinion (my position on all of this) or you are arguing majority opinion, in which case Hancock will be MUCH better than Iron Man if you count the money.

I'm glad you are playing this straight, IO. But you are exposing some surprsingly simple thinking in the process. Is your opinion a popularity contest? Should anyone's be?

thanks for Doctors explanation, I knew it was Marshall's movie debut but other than that had no idea it was highly anticipated (just a little bit before my time). Have seen the movie though and it is the second best film on that list next to Mystery Men.

You could probably add Three Amigos to the list as well.

JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY and THREE AMIGOS are legitimately funny movies, and there are at least a few laughs to be found in YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE, HARLEM NIGHTS (Redd Foxx holding forth on "Creole bitches") and MYSTERY MEN. But CLUB PARADISE? Not so much as a chuckle. Even Levy and Moranis bomb out as a couple of hirsute horndogs trying to score some weed. Bet it was a fun set, though.

I'm sorry, but YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE was not seen as anything other than a sheer rip-off off AIRPLANE's patented ZAZ humor. Nobody was waiting for that one.

Actually, hcat... isn't "Three Amigos" referred to as an 80's comedy classic? David brought up the point that history won't be kind to this "un-named film" and I would say that history has been very kind to "Three Amigos." I'm trying to think of another classic miss comedy that had big talent and was slated to be a huge: "The Cable Guy?"

Which brings me to Stiller. I'd be very disappointed if it was "Tropic Thunder." The casting of Downey Jr. seemed so funny and ballsy and it looks like a laugh riot -- but as "Mystery Men" and countless other films have proved, Stiller can miss just as big as anybody else.
Yes, I'm sure plenty of you can sit through "Mystery Men," but invite a bunch of people who haven't seen it and screen it for them, watch how it plays to people with high expectations -- crickets.

I've never thought Stiller was good at directing features. Reality Bites and Cable Guy had potential, and to me totally missed the mark.

David, don't hurt your wrist patting yourself on the back so hard.

I have to say it since no one else has.

1. THREE AMIGOS, which as a kid I raced to go see because I thought Chevy Chase was perfect, sucks. To this day, it drags and is not funny.

2. TROPIC THUNDER, I hope, will bomb. I love him to death, but everytime I see Robert Downey Jr looking like a Sambo on that Billboard I throw up a little in my mouth - creatively desperate, middle-aged white guys with no REAL edge decide the best way to go is Al Jolsen 2008? As Al's contemporaries The Little Rascals would have said, "get lost."

3. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS better be good, because that FINDING SARAH MARSHALL did greater harm to the Apatow brand than DRILLBIT, if only because, unlike in the case of the latter, he signed off on and associated himself with the former. And it was unwatchable. And I feel bad about that because I know some of the people involved with FINDING... and they're good people. Not sure how it came out so bad.

Three Amigos is also one of the most influential movies of the 1980s - A Bug's Life, and now, apparently Tropic Thunder are following in its tracks.

I also was surprised at how enjoyable Sarah Marshall was.

Tad - "[a] creatively desperate, middle-aged white guy with no REAL edge decides the best way to go is Al Jolsen 2008?" I'm pretty sure that's the description of his character in TROPIC THUNDER, to a T.
I am hoping the hints point at STEP BROTHERS. That whole Ferrell / Apatow brand has worn out its welcome. I enjoyed ANCHORMAN, TALLADEGA and 40-YEAR OLD VIRGIN just fine, but they have had increasingly diminished returns since then - SUPERBAD being the exception (for me, at least). SARAH MARSHALL was an actual struggle to sit through, and WALK HARD was not much better.

It's not Step Brothers. That movie has, what, six actors and three locations? Tropic Thunder is the more expensive, high-concept idea with a larger number of talented actors in the cast.

Had the "Tropic Thunder" trailer before TDK. Looks like most comedies do in trailers--it'll either suck or be really good. No middle ground. Also, at my 3:30 p.m. showing the "Watchmen" trailer went over like the proverbial lead balloon. No reaction whatsoever. I guess the fanboys only come out at night.

I won't engage in the pointless pursuit of arguing about comedy, but I really liked Sarah Marshall.

jeff, I think the inspiration for A Bug's Life was Seven Samurai, but maybe it inspired Three Amigos as well (I've never seen that one).

Three Amigos, and also Galaxy Quest, are basically comedic versions of the Seven Samurai formula. I figure that since Amigos did it first they should get some kind of credit.

"It is a sweateeeer!"

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