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Tropic Thunder’s Etan Cohen Goes For Oscar Gold

Photo: Dan Monick, Illustrations: Stedroy Cleghorne

Etan Cohen, the writer of films like Idiocracy and this summer’s Tropic Thunder, knows comedy. But he’s no dummy—he knows powerful dramas are the path to an Academy Award. So Cohen came up with a few serious issues he wanted to “explore,” and teamed with Complex’s crack casting department to create some movie pitches sure to have him walking the red carpet come Oscar season. Ain’t a damn thing funny…

Tropic Thunder Is So Funny It’s Retarded

Ayo! Scott laughed so hard at Ben Stiller’s new comedy Tropic Thunder that it could well have been a retarded person. That’s no knock on retards or the champions of retardation who’ve been protesting the film’s apparently excessive usage of the word “retard.” Ayo’s just saying: Retards are funny. They were funny in the Stiller classic There’s Something About Mary and they’re funny in this movie—y’know, in what limited capacity they flex their limited capacities…

YouTubin’: Tropic Thunder’s Brandon T. Jackson

All the press attention for Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, which opens tomorrow, has gone to Robert Downey Jr. and his controversial turn in blackface. We’ve seen the film, and Downey definitely deserves dap for an awesome performance.

But let’s not forget the real black guy in the mix—newcomer Brandon T. Jackson. His name may not be on the marquee, but the comic caught our eye with a spot-on portrayal of a rapper-turned-actor in Stiller’s war-movie troupe. We heard the role was originally supposed to go to Mos Def, but there’s no way he could’ve done a better job. We caught up with Brandon to go over five YouTube clips related to the film and his career…

Tropic Thunder’s Bobble Head Brigade

To help get buzz going on Tropic Thunder, which comes out next Friday, Dreamworks has been dropping clips from the new film as well as seeding out a slew of promotional materials.

The newest hype-tool for the film comes in the form of these 6-inch bobble heads that ended up in our mailbox. See toy versions of the movie’s stars—including Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black and Nick Nolte—close-up below.

Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder Fights The Good Fight

Last night Complex rolled to a rough-cut screening of Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller’s new summer comedy about a group of pampered actors who get caught in real jungle warfare while filming your average Vietnam War flick. The premise sounds like a cross between ¡Three Amigos! (awesome) and Delta Farce (considerably less awesome), and given that it’s been a minute since a Stiller comedy wowed us, we weren’t sure what he’d deliver. The first good sign was that he was present for the screening, as were his parents and Larry David.

It turns out that Stiller, who co-wrote, directed, and starred in the movie, is sitting on a banger (you know a movie’s funny if it makes the god Larry David cackle). Stiller and Jack Black are back. Tom Cruise’s cameo as a ball-breaking movie producer is crazy…funny. Everyone is so strong that you can’t say one performance steals the show, but Robert Downey Jr. as a Russell Crowe-inspired Aussie thespian in black face is ballsy and hysterical. Between this and Iron Man (release date: May 2), Downey Jr. is going to own the summer. Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen’s weeded crime thriller Pineapple Express (August 8) will have a legitimate box office battle on its hands when Tropic Thunder drops on August 15. Peep the trailer after the jump.