Parents' Guide to Tropic Thunder

Writer-director-producer Stiller pokes witty fun at self-absorbed actors and greedy studios in this send-up of action-packed war dramas. Though it's darker and more violent than you might expect for a Stiller comedy, Tropic Thunder is both bitingly funny and incredibly intelligent. Downey walks a fine line as an Australian blue-eyed man in blackface, playing a method actor so caught up in the part that he doesn't drop character between shots. Black has less to do as a junkie lowbrow comic, but Baruchel and Johnson shine as, respectively, the newcomer actor who actually read the entire script and the diversified rapper adding acting to his many revenue streams. Tom Cruise straps on a bald cap (and, unfortunately, a fat suit) to play repulsive studio head Les Grossman, the kind of obscenity-spewing tycoon who would sell his mother's soul to Satan for higher box-office receipts. He even tries to convince Speedman's loyal agent (Matthew McConaughey) to let Speedman die at a drug cartel's hands in exchange for a personal jet. Ultimately, Cruise and Downey are the hilarious highlights in this witty, barbed film.