DVD OF THE WEEK

TROPIC THUNDER ****
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black
Dir: Ben Stiller

Some week's I can't find one movie that merits being a 'Pick of the Week”. Then there are weeks like this when everything is right up there. All the four star films this week are only a smidgen short of being five stars and – in a quieter week – any could be the 'Pick of the Week”.
But I think Tropic Thunder is my favourite. Taking as its starting point the likes of Platoon and Apocalypse Now, it takes a gleeful hatchet to Hollywood in general while at the same time delivering dead accurate parodies of the specific genre.
The plot: a company of pampered movie stars attempt to make a 'rescue the man left behind” Vietnam epic. With production running way over budget the director takes his stars into the jungle with hidden cameras and attempts to finish the film 'guerrilla-style”. But things go horribly wrong…
It's a great idea and the casting is spot-on. The film starts with mock trailers for the stars' previous movies: Stiller is Tugg Speedman, action hero of the 'Scorcher” series (tag line: 'here we go again… again”); Black is the drug-fuelled star of the 'Fatties” franchise, playing all the roles of a family specialising in farting; Downey is the sensitive five time Oscar-winning Aussie method actor who has had his skin pigments surgically coloured to play a black lieutenant. Add in Steve Coogan as the harried director, Brandon T Jackson as rapper Alpa Chino, Nick Nolte as the guy who wrote the book, Matthew McConaughey as agent Rick Peck ('The Pecker”!) and Tom Cruise in an unrecognisable bald wig and fat suit, and you have a cast as good as the material.
This is wonderfully funny stuff. It runs out of steam a little as it goes on, but Robert Downey Jr's confused method maestro in particular is an acting masterclass in layered comedy. There is a longer director's cut which is even better – see it if you can.

Wanted (****) is every teenage boys ideal fantasy movie. Imagine you are a dull office worker, lousy apartment, hateful boss, unfaithful girlfriend, with only dreams of an exciting life. Imagine Angelina Jolie bursts into your life with the news that you are in fact the son of the world's greatest (super-wealthy) assassin and they want you to join their secret guild and realise the superpowers you never knew you had.
Sound like fun? Well, there are a few pitfalls for initially wimpy hero James McAvoy, but under the directorial reins of Timur Bekmambetov this film simply sizzles. Replete with a laconic Fight Club-like narration and a visual style equally as kinetic as that film's, Wanted is the year's most original adrenaline ride, its serviceable plot given life by the sheer originality of the Russian director's unique style. If you like this, also check out his previous vampire outings Nightwatch and Daywatch.

The Wachowski brothers came in for a fair amount of flack for Speed Racer (****). Perhaps that was always going to happen after The Matrix trilogy. But Speed Racer, a little long though it may be, is a sparkling day-glo invention unlike anything you've ever seen. The colours alone are worth the ride but there is also a good (if simple) story on offer and a slew of memorable set-pieces. But it's the visual look of the film that will be remembered as the cars careen around race tracks that have sprung fully formed from the most extravagant of video games. Don't watch this for depth or subtlety, but if you're looking for an explosion of colourful excitement, this has it in spades.

All you ever need to know about the tactics of American politics is laid bare in all its ugly glory in Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (****). Atwater was the republican strategist who rose to prominence under Reagan and proved himself by getting the first Bush elected, with a campaign as dirty as anyone had ever seen. He spawned the young Bush's political aspirations and gifted him his protégé Karl Rove. He was as nasty a political operative as you can imagine, inventing the new paradigms for dividing your opponents and pushing unspoken class and race buttons.
He also played and sang the blues and was by all accounts a bright, funny, and very personable guy. And the Bushes, from their silver spoon-fed mansions, never liked the working class surper. This story is both frightening and surprising. A brilliant documentary about a fascinating man.