Movies Like Tropic Thunder Comedy Fans Need To See

Hollywood loves making movies about itself — but for obvious reasons, most of those movies aren't very funny. Do you like making yourself look stupid on purpose? Of course not. 

"Tropic Thunder" is one of the handful of exceptions that proves the rule. The 2008 farce implies that behind every tough-as-nails, hyper-competent cinematic war hero, there lies a pampered, navel-gazing, glory-mongering, emotionally-troubled actor. However, Hollywood actor Ben Stiller probably does not hate Hollywood actors, and would not direct a film that portrays Hollywood actors with excessive harshness. So the cast of its movie within-a-movie — including Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) — express enough humanity and charm to remain in the audience's good graces. This is essential, because for the movie to work, we've got to care if Speedman and his costars live or die when an ill-conceived attempt to inject some realism into the production goes haywire.  

Setting aside some superficial similarities with a lesser-known 1980 Peter O'Toole project called "The Stunt Man," "Tropic Thunder" stands as a mostly one-of-a-kind piece, and a solid performer as far as the critical consensus goes. But if we reverse engineer "Tropic Thunder" and break it down to its individual ingredients, we can point to many other films that check off a few of the same essential boxes. 

So if you're a "Tropic Thunder" fanatic and trying to figure out what the heck to watch next, observe these suggestions. 

With the possible exception of "Reality Bites" (1994), Ben Stiller's directorial efforts tend to lean into a bombastic, embellished sensibility. There's nothing subtle about "Tropic Thunder," clearly. But there are several subtle things about "For Your Consideration" — a 2006 endeavor written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy that takes a much more understated swipe at out-of-touch actors with their minds hyper-focused on validation.    

Three cast members of the movie-within-the-movie, a 1940s-based family drama with the working title "Home for Purim," are all led to think the Academy has them in mind for Oscar nominations. The trio of thespians — Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer), and Callie Webb (Parker Posey) — do not manage their newly-elevated expectations gracefully. 

Not unlike "This Is Spinal Tap" or the handful of other films conjured up by Guest and Levy, "For Your Consideration" is propelled by wacky improvised performances and keeps its plot helpfully sparse and out of its actors' way. Speaking of actors, John Krasinski and Sandra Oh are both in this movie for about 20 seconds each, and the lately-departed Fred Willard sets out on a comedic tour-de-force alongside an impeccably straight-faced Jane Lynch.

Some fans argue that Tim Burton's best movie is also one of his least-seen projects. Penned by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, 1994's "Ed Wood" chronicles the life of its eponymous horror/sci-fi "visionary" (Johnny Depp) during the first half of the 1950s. Perhaps the first figure in moviemaking to gain notoriety by failing spectacularly at moviemaking, Wood definitely set the stage for folks like Tommy Wiseau. In a more indirect way, Wood accidentally uncovered the public's appreciation for bad movies — a market no one managed to fully exploit until "Mystery Science Theater 3000" came along a decade after Wood's death in 1978.    

While Wood's primary claim to fame is the supposed worst movie ever, 1957's "Plan 9 From Outer Space," he also directed and starred in 1953's "Glen or Glenda" — a loosely-autobiographical film that examines Wood's crossdressing with a sensitivity and sympathy virtually unheard of in the 1950s. Likewise, "Ed Wood" itself accepts its hero's gender-nonconforming fashion sense without much qualification, which seems at least a little ahead of its time for the '90s, right?     

Burton and Depp's iteration of Ed Wood is a professional failure; Tugg Speedman and the rest of the "Tropic Thunder" gang are professional successes — but characters from both films share a wide-eyed love of movie magic that anchors their delusions of grandeur to something vaguely wholesome and endearing. "Ed Wood" also features Sarah Jessica Parker as Wood's longtime fiancé Dolores Fuller, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, and Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge.

Robert Downey Jr.'s decision to portray blackface-wearing white Australian actor Kirk Lazarus in actual blackface in "Tropic Thunder" was not without controversy. During a stop by the Joe Rogan podcast (via Indiewire), Downey stated that the intent behind the performance was to mock the "insane self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they're allowed to do on occasion." 

Downey's use of blackface was designed to make fun of pompous actors, not black people – however, intentions aren't everything. Considering the repulsive history of white actors donning blackface for racist attempts at comedy, if some folks seem more than a little uncomfortable with Kirk Lazarus, maybe they have a right to be. Spike Lee examines the implications of re-introducing blackface and minstrel shows in modern American entertainment in 2000's "Bamboozled," and challenges the fundamental notion that the entertainment industry has evolved as far as it thinks it has.

Though a financial and critical failure upon its release in George W. Bush's America, "Bamboozled" has been vindicated by history. In hindsight, Spike Lee was right about everything.        

If you like movies, reading the name "Quentin Tarantino" probably triggers a pile of associations in your brain. Maybe you're a fan of his work, or maybe you aren't, but it's hard to argue that any other filmmaker has cultivated a stronger cult of personality during the last 30 years. The definitive Tarantino films – "Pulp Fiction" (1994), "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), "Kill Bill Vol. 1" (2003) and "Kill Bill Vol. 2" (2004) — all came out at least 15 years ago; while they might have been considered the bleeding edge of cinema in their heyday, that era is pretty much over. So when Tarantino dreamed up "Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood" protagonist Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), an aging cowboy actor in the late 1960s, could he have been inspired by himself? 

It's fun to speculate on Dalton's status as an author proxy, but we can say with more certainty that 2019's "Once Upon A Time..." sees Tarantino wielding tension and quiet space between clusters of dialogue and action with a mastery unseen in his films since the criminally underrated "Jackie Brown" (1997). Dalton and his longtime stunt double and best pal Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) cope with Dalton's fading celebrity; meanwhile, Manson Family members prepare for their history-altering attack on the home of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). Overall, "Once Upon a Time..." is probably a more thoughtful Hollywood satire — and some might argue is head and shoulders above — "Tropic Thunder."

Ben Stiller describes "Tropic Thunder" as "a funny 'Apocalypse Now'" in a 2007 interview with MTV. Maybe that makes Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 staple of American cinema a serious "Tropic Thunder"?

Among the most influential and acclaimed movies of all time, of any genre, "Apocalypse Now" qualifies as a must-watch, if only to broaden your understanding and appreciation of American film. It's an update on Joseph Conrad's 1899 anti-colonialist novel "Heart of Darkness," reframed as a meditation on the Vietnam War. The higher-ups at the U.S. military consider Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) a loose cannon, and send Captain Ben Willard (Martin Sheen) deep into the jungle to terminate Kurtz's authority "with extreme prejudice." In this instance, "terminate his authority with extreme prejudice" is a thin bureaucratic euphemism for murder.

"Apocalypse Now" collects a handful of acting luminaries at early phases in their careers, including Harrison Ford and Laurence Fishburne, while serving as something of a capstone for Brando's seemingly invincible legacy. Kurtz's warped and messianic monologues would make "Apocalypse Now" worth watching all by themselves, even if the rest of the movie wasn't oft-cited as one of the greatest ever. Who's going to argue with Roger Ebert? Not us.