Deja Vu All Over Again
posted August 14, 2008 6:57 AM
If you were here yesterday, you may recall that I took note of the eerie resembance of the plot of Tropic Thunder , the Ben Stiller/Robert Downey Jr./Jack Black make-fun-of-the-developmentally-challenged epic Hollywood satire currently in theaters --
-- to that of the 1989 Steve Martin/Chevy Chase/Martin Short men-in-funny-hats comedy Three Amigos.
In both films, of course, a bunch of clueless Hollywood actors find themselves in an exotic locale and -- thinking they're filming a movie -- get involved instead in a genuine shooting war with heavily armed bad guys. A nifty premise, certainly, and I must admit that I was rather pleased with myself for catching the resemblance. Reader Zounds What Sounds!, however, notes that I missed another -- far funnier, actually -- recent film with more or less the same plot.
I refer, of course, to the hilarious 1999 sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest.
In that one, of course, Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman play clueless actors from a cancelled TV series -- patterned after (duh) Star Trek -- who eventually find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic war featuring really creepy insectoid villains . That last, it occurs to me, may or may not be a rather pointed satire of certain Hollywood studio heads, and if so perhaps the ultimate inspiration for Tom Cruise's hideous mogul character in Tropic Thunder.
Compare and contrast -- the GQ alien commander...
...and Cruise's exec-from-hell Les Grossman(!) in TT.
In any case, if you haven't seen Galaxy Quest, it's one of the funniest films of recent years (despite the fact that it never makes possibly hurtful fun of the intellectually challenged) and, best of all, it's a real insiders parody; the people that made it have an obviously genuine affection for the charming fatuousness of the original Trek. Here's the trailer, which gives you a pretty good idea of the thoroughly droll tone of the thing.
Needless to say you can, and should, order it here. In the meantime, rest assured that if I can think of another film with the same story line I will post about it ASAP, even if it's totally devoid of tasteless japes at the expense of the learning disabled.
Coming tomorrow: Why Silence of the Lambs and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl are actually the same film!!!
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Steve Simels has written about music and movies for Sound and Vision magazine (formerly Stereo Review) since the early 70s. He has also contributed to Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and the Wall Street Journal. He’s the author of “Gender Chameleons: Androgyny in Rock n Roll” (Arbor House, 1985), and blogs at PowerPop.blogspot.com. His ambition in life is to play the Leslie Howard role in a remake of “Petrified Forest.”
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Richard said:
I always carry a cell phone while wearing my fat suit, myself.
August 14, 2008 10:25 AM
Nora Charles said:
By Grabthar's hammer, it is good Simels lives to tell the tale! I love this trip to the Klaatu Nebula...
August 14, 2008 10:42 AM
by grabthar's hammer said:
i am mightly sick of stiller and black. they are so not funny, they haven't been for a while. i liked...no, this a family blog, i won't remind everyone of that scene. oh look! mediocre white guys telling stale jokes which demonstrate how out of touch they are with the types of actual people they choose to 'interpret' in their lowbrow excuses for 'film!' but anyway, can we admit already that stiller hasn't has It in a long time, and black is turning into a not-so-funny reminder that other, funnier, weight-affirmative comics are no longer with us? these guys are like republicans, they think because they're friends with the money people they must be the center of everyone's attention. they're not.
galaxy quest is tres funny, my only quibble is they wrote the black character very poorly; he was almost a perfect 'mistrel' type of caricature- which didn't make me laugh at all. the rest of the film was belly-clutching funny, tho. almost redeemed itself.
...paris. tickets. me. put them together or i'll lambaste your horrific taste in film day, after day, after day...
August 14, 2008 11:08 AM
Cosmic Tumbler said:
The guy in the middle doesn't look like Robert Downey Jr.
August 14, 2008 11:43 AM
Mrs. Peel said:
...paris. tickets. me. put them together or i'll lambaste your horrific taste in film day, after day, after day...
Call me crazy, but I don't think this approach is going to work.
Most of the characters in "Galaxy Quest" are caricatures, not just the black one. Sigourney Weaver is as classic a dumb blonde as has ever been written ...
Having said that, I, too, can't stand Jack Black. But then, a lot of things that pass for humor (e.g., "Knocked Up") leave me cold. Give me "Blazing Saddles" or give me death!
August 14, 2008 12:31 PM
catalexis said:
I had missed the Three Amigos angle but the Galaxy Quest treatment was indeed superior in my view. I must insist on defending the Thurmians however. They are an emotionally non-hostile people and they chose to direct their imitative and obviously technically accomplished energies toward a brave and expansive model. I choose to interpret their muted expression (both vocally and physically) as mere affects relating to an imperfect mapping from their true forms onto the human "costume". The difficulty in relating to the concept of lying is to their credit and not an indictment of their intelligence. They never struck me as dumb or retarded but as well meaning, genuinely brave if imperfectly disguised protagonists that served to both bring out the real heroes inside the actors and face an existential challenge to their own existence using all of their talents both familiar and hidden.
August 14, 2008 1:18 PM
Hecate, Runymeade Conspirator said:
LOL! I always read your posts and then peruse the rest of the site.
August 14, 2008 4:16 PM