Tropic Thunder

The next great Vietnam War film has run into trouble. It's been a long, grueling, expensive shoot, and now the studio has decided to pull the plug! What's a brilliant director to do? Probably something smarter than what this director decides upon: finish the movie himself by dumping his self-absorbed and clueless cast into the middle of a real war zone. It takes the prima donnas a little while to realize it, but those bad guys shooting back are not stuntment, they're a real heroin cartel. If the actors don't get their method on in a big way, they're going to be tropic toast.

Three Good Reasons

• 1 You love comedy. You love action. In his first movie as the co-writer/director since Zoolander, Ben Stiller has promised that this flick delivers plenty of both.
• 2 The secret is out -- Tom Cruise makes a brief appearance, and you have never, ever heard him use this kind of language.
• 3 Iron Man's Robert Downey, Jr. in blackface!? Offensive or hilarious? Either way everyone will be talking about it