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Say what you will about Tropic Thunder - hilarious Hollywood satire or sorry excuse for politically incorrect potshots - but it’s hard to deny its insularity. Of all the contained within Tinsel Town takes such as The Player and The Stunt Man, this madcap movie really delivers on the feeding hand mastication. As with any in-joke, the humor increases as the source becomes more selective, the novelty lost on those left outside looking in. The same could be said for the latest offshoot from the Thunder-dome: a mock documentary fashioned after the fabled Apocalypse Now memoir Hearts of Darkness. Entitled Rain of Madness, this spoof of a making-of of a lampoon is wonderfully wicked - and sadly, too short.
For German born director Jan Jürgen, the notion of war and its various horrors is not as interesting as the realities of making a movie about said combat. So he decides to follow filmmaker Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) as he prepares to shoot the cinematic adaptation of “Four Leaf” Tayback’s (Nick Nolte) Vietnam chronicle, Tropic Thunder. From the casting of all the leads - Australian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), crude comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) - to the troubled situations onset, Jürgen deconstructs the overblown Hollywood hatchet job. Placing the blame squarely on prima donna performers and an inexperienced director, previously unknown facets of the film are disclosed, including the shocking final footage shot by Cockburn…before he and his cast vanished!
Rain of Madness
Jan Jürgen
Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Danny McBride
(DreamWorks; US theatrical: 28 Aug 2008; 2008)
Combining the best of the mock doc format while finding a way to incorporate some obvious outtakes, Rain of Madness pushes the absolute limits of Tropic Thunder‘s original premise. Making a fake film about another phony production practically screams cheek, and for that reason alone this movie is worth the free ITunes download. But don’t expect to be bowled over by new material. Some of the stuff here is clearly linked to improvised scenes, cut comedy bits, and purposely bogus EPK interviews with the cast and crew in character. Almost everyone involved here is goofing it up before the camera - some more than others. Downey Jr. has an amazing sequence when he meets up with his character’s “real life” Texas family. His meltdown is memorable indeed. Similarly, the endless mugging for “MTV” by Jackson’s Chino is priceless. Black is less involved, as is Stiller, but Baruchel continues to be Thunder‘s undervalued VIP. His scenes as the sole participant in Cockburn’s pre-filming boot camp are classic.
Equally entertaining are Coogan’s newer moments in front of the lens. Rather marginalized in the movie itself (he’s literally gone in a flash), Cockburn is seen as much more of a screw up during Rain, his limited knowledge of movie making logistics really adding up when it comes to controlling his hack-tors. While it would have been nice to see more of Tom Cruise or Matthew McConaughey, there absence is clearly the result of location, not personal limits. Since much of the material was filmed on Thunder‘s Hawaiian sets, it seems illogical to expect two extended cameos to take part in this public-private lark. Still, there is a lot of fun to be had here, especially when Jürgen does his best Werner Herzog for a last act look at Cockburn’s death scene (ala Grizzly Man, we don’t see it, just Jürgen’s reaction - over and over again).
At only 30 minutes, Rain of Madness does feel awfully short. Maybe it’s the amount of material Coogan and co-writer Justin Theroux had to work with. Perhaps the running time is connected to the willingness of the A-list cast to participate. Certainly, the format itself limits the amount of opportunities, along with obvious fears of overstaying one’s welcome. Still, as part of the big picture putdown of the business called show, Rain makes a wonderful companion piece to Thunder. While you may want to wait for the inevitable DVD release (ITunes is a tad proprietary), this short is still a lot of fun. It’s always a joy to peer into the specious soul of Hollywood’s own horror show to see the Satan underneath.
