Tropic Thunder a pleasant surprise

Finally, we have a great Thunderous comedy on the horizon. Went to a screening of Tropic Thunder on Monday night at the Bridge in West Philadelphia. (If you haven't been, it's the nicest place to see movies in the city, especially during the sweltering summer.)

Directed, co-written and starring Ben Stiller -- who knew he had these gifts? -- Thunder is a send-up of Hollywood, machismo, racial stereotypes, popular culture and a plain hoot. The movie, about a Vietnam action movie that goes horribly wrong, manages to astonish on many levels.

First, there's Stiller's advancement as a writer and director of the first order. (His acting is still hammy.)  Robert Downey, Jr. is terrific as a Russell Crowe-type method actor who stays in character, as a black sargeant, long after the movie cameras stop filming. Matthew McConaughey, usually pretty but wooden, is very good as a clueless agent. And an unrecognizable Tom Cruise almost steals the movie in an unbilled cameo as a crass movie producer. He should stop playing  pretty-boy heroes and only take on comedy and villains, at which he excels. (See Magnolia.) The cast includes two great one-time insurance risks in the business, Downey and Nick Nolte as Vietnam vet memoirist, and both are wonderful.

Intelligent, funny and fast, it makes you want to see it again and own a copy.

The preview audience loved it. Funny to 14-year-olds  and their parents. Opens Aug. 13. See it. Thank me later.