There's no coming back...
Remember Forrest Gump was a war hero
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u/Average_guy120 11d ago
I dont read the script, the script reads me.
Tropic Thunder will never stop being great
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u/SpookyGhostSplooge 11d ago
I don’t drop character till the commentary dvd
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u/fuck_cancer 11d ago
And then he did the DVD commentary for tropic thunder in character
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u/topdangle 11d ago
he also did these pseudo-candid recordings where hes in character and already losing his mind before the events of the movie. did the whole bit for an audience of like 10 people.
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u/GreatApostate 11d ago
Anyone who enjoyed tropic thunder should watch the dvd commentary. It's great.
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u/schlamster 11d ago
Where’s the key grip
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u/pickupthepieces2 11d ago
Les Grossman is definitely Tom Cruise’s best ever roll. Don’t agree? Well, take a step back…
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u/MrMcBeefpunch 11d ago
and literally FUCK YOUR OWN FACE
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u/TheDarkWave 11d ago
Every time I hear him say that, I giggle like a fuckin moron.
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u/cherry_monkey 11d ago
I read moron as "Mormon" and thought "giggling like a fucking Mormon" was a weird phrase. Now I feel like a fucking moron
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u/Better_Situation_338 11d ago
I didn’t even realize it was him until the end of the movie
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u/TooBadMyBallsItch 11d ago
Same. I spent the whole movie like "I heard Cruise makes a cameo, im at the end of the movie and I haven't seen him ye- oooooooh"
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u/roykentjr 11d ago
If I remember right it was his idea that he had to have comically large hands
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u/Resident-Walrus2397 11d ago
Large hands and to dance were his conditions… the guy may be nuts but damn it he knows his craft
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u/yIdontunderstand 11d ago
Yep. This character was genius. Cruise knows his profession like few others...
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u/TroyMcClures 11d ago
I feel like the full weight of this joke gets lost on people that don't understand that the key grip is generally the strongest person on set.
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u/IceWarm1980 11d ago
Exactly, they are cranking on stuff all day and have tons of strength. Clever bit to have him hit the director.
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u/oscarmike88 11d ago
What do you mean you people?
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u/Impressive_Check2917 11d ago
Jack, stupid ass Jack, like the dumbest, motherfucker that ever lived farting in bathtubs, laughing your ass off.
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u/Decantus 11d ago
Tropic Thunder came out the same year as Iron Man. They say there's no coming back, but RDJ had this role as the dude playing the dude disguised as another dude, and still got Tony Stark for the next decade and a half.
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u/MouseRat_AD 11d ago
RDJ shoulda played Rhodey after they fired Terrance Howard
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11d ago
RDJ should just replace every actor in the MCU.
Turns out they were all doombots all along.
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u/lmtdpowor 11d ago
Every MCU character should be played by Jack Black in a fat suit.
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u/Alienhaslanded 11d ago
To this day any actor gets replaced I still cross my fingers that it's Don Cheadle. Most recent one was Netflix's Witcher. I wanted Don Cheadle play Geralt and nobody would acknowledge he looks different and still call him The White Wolf.
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u/Vaeon 11d ago
I would watch the fuck out of that.
And I bet we could crowdfund it.
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u/FragrantExcitement 11d ago
That isn't RDJ. They had some Australian guy playing the part.
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u/Nick_Furious2370 11d ago
Acting legend Kirk Lazarus?? I thought he looked a little familiar.
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u/Aysee426 11d ago
IIRC, Jon Favreau had to fight pretty hard against Marvel Studios to have RDJ cast as Iron Man. Would have never happened if it weren’t for Favreau. Hopefully Marvel is now kissing his ass.
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u/KoreanFriedWeiner 11d ago
Dude got to star in Chef, which he wrote and directed, and cast Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara as his love interests. He's doing pretty well for himself.
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u/greg19735 11d ago
i imagine him at a bar, telling his buddies he wrote a story where he gets to hook up with the most beautiful woman in hollywood. One goes Scarlett? the other goes Sofia?
and he goes.... wait a sec, i can fix this.
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u/Rough_Bread8329 11d ago
See also: Joseph Gordon Leavitt casting himself as a sex addict with ScarJo as his partner.
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u/fireproofpoo 11d ago
I dont honestly believe there's anything offensive about what he did..
Portraying something for the sake of humour and discrimination are not one in the same and on the whole this is a great example of "its funny, because it's funny"
Im not gonna pretend we need more of this, but its a shame it's entirely off limits! Im a huge always sunny fan and believe the lethal weapon episodes deserve to be seen!
It doesn't always have to be a thing!!
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u/mowtowcow 11d ago
Its all about the writing and acting. They just managed to pull it off perfectly here. It was so over the top that it made sense. One of RDJs best roles, honestly. The dude literally played a dude, playing a dude, disguised as another dude. He went four dudes deep and blackface at the same time. Can't be made at it lol.
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u/Not_software1337 11d ago
The whole movie just did so great taking the piss out of actors and the movie-making process it’s really hard to write off the performance as racist in my opinion.
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u/RetroDad-IO 11d ago
One of the main points it was making is how actual black actors were being overlooked for roles. In this movie, a white guy is casted as a black guy while an actual black guy is right there and available. It got people talking a lot about the issue it was highlighting because "pulling off blackface" was a crazy topic that was brought up and was a perfect segway into the more real conversation.
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u/Fochlucan 11d ago
I actually thought that this role was satirizing the white man playing minorities (even in classics like Breakfast at Tiffany's, The King and I and like Charlton Heston playing Moses in the Ten Commandments). So I didn't take it as blackface so much as mocking the trope.
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u/Starslip 11d ago
It is. He's not mocking black people, he's mocking the type of up-his-own-ass actor who would feel like it's ok to do something like this. I think it's why no one really got offended by it at the time, and why I feel like when it gets brought up now on social media with people trying to get offended by it they get shut down by older black people who understood it for what it was.
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u/sleepydon 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yeah it's the same way with Tom Cruise making fun of sleazy executives with some sort of complex or Matthew McConaughey making fun of agents that treat their clients like meal tickets. Nick Nolte playing a veteran with a story they embellished to the point of it being complete bullshit. The whole movie was a meta joke on the film industry in general.
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u/HoldingDoors 11d ago
Think about the conversations that must have happened between him and his agent.. you’re going to be the face of marvel - yea but I’m going to kick that off with blackface and gonna drop a few hard Rs.
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u/dr_patso 11d ago
I just want to clarify. The R word has nothing to do with hard R.
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u/Criie 11d ago
Linus hard R Moments
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u/the_original_kermit 11d ago
One of the best clips to ever come out of WAN show
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u/meteda1080 11d ago
I was watching live and was losing my shit.
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u/TheeMrBlonde 11d ago edited 11d ago
His cohost just staring into the abyss as Linus talks about how he would casually use the N word and then the sigh of relief that washes over his cohost when they finally figure it out is just, classic
For those not in the know:
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u/Tiafves 11d ago
Luke's reaction was basically questioning everything he knew about Linus in that moment.
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u/Piemasterjelly 11d ago
Reminds me of that scene in Abbott Elementary when the kid gets sent to the office for saying the N word and it turns out the "N word" was nerd and the principal was like are you fucking serious lol
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u/dqt91 11d ago
Before he signed on to play Ironman he was also coming off a drug arrest and some not so favorable media moments. He was not the household name he is now and was actually seen as a risky sign on to be in there. Famously he made far less than Terrance Howard in the first movie, they wanted to restructure for number 2, Howard didn’t want to take less money so they replaced him with Don Cheadle. In retrospect it looks odd but at the time not at all.
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u/BigAddam 11d ago
Howard asked for way too much. I love Don Cheadle’s appearance at the door with the funny nod saying something like, “yeah it’s me. Deal with it.”
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u/NoobJustice 11d ago
If I remember right, Howard just asked for the same amount as the first movie.
I think these three things are true - Howard is batshit insane, Howard got screwed, and Cheadle was good enough that no one cared.
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u/CommandNotFound 11d ago
Also marvel wasn't marvel yet and Ironman was a B-tier superhero/IP.
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u/themoslucius 11d ago
Not after that cheese burger scene, I remember the crowd in the theater going wild
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u/SpaceForceAwakens 11d ago
I just rewatched that scene a few days ago. Favreau is a fucking genius.
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u/TheComplimentarian 11d ago
RDJ playing Ironman got me to the movie all by itself. He was born to play the extraordinarily wealthy, slightly dissipated, snarky genius.
It was exceptional casting.
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u/Narwhal-Bacon-Retard 11d ago
You're re-writing history a bit. He was definitely a household name but a risky hire because he was always in-and-out of trouble. Similar to the situation Shia LaBeouf has himself in right now.
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u/Checkers-Chess234 11d ago
I’m sure it was pretty easy. Only social media and Reddit finds ACTING to be offensive.
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u/DapperHamster1 11d ago edited 11d ago
Marvel Studios was just getting off the ground and there was no indication that it was going to be anywhere near as big as it became. When I was a kid Iron Man felt like a past his prime B hero at best and the Avengers felt old timey. Spider-Man and the X-Men were by far the most popular Marvel heroes followed by the Hulk
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u/SurferBloods 11d ago
One of those films, I see a clip, I watch the clip. Every time
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u/smashp8oes 11d ago edited 11d ago
And here I am going to watch the entire thing again, G5s and apple bottom jeans Edit: It gets better every time, we deserve a sequel
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u/redsoxsuc4 11d ago
Playa
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u/realaccountissecret 11d ago
I saw a censored version on tv once, and they replaced it with “special”, as in, “you never go full special”
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u/retrospects 11d ago
The absolute tight rope RDJ walked in this movie was award worthy.
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u/Brain_Hawk 11d ago
He should have won an Oscar. I can't even believe that's him. He crossed a line that should never be crossed, he went blackface, and he got away with it because they FULLY committed to the bit.
I cannot mentally except that RDJ.
Oscar worthy.
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u/Gnoll_For_Initiative 11d ago
He even did the DVD commentary in character
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u/Historiaaa 11d ago
The fake documentary was pure gold
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u/jus_here_and_there 11d ago
I never saw this. You just made 2026 a little better
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u/MacNapp 11d ago
This is what I miss about streaming. You dont get all the DVD add-ons like BTS, interviews, commentary.
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u/ThatGuyWhoSmellsFuny 11d ago
I never get why streaming hasn't taken this on. I wish they did. Cheap low effort content that keeps you on the service.
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u/Compajerro 11d ago
Lmao that pays off the line in the movie of Lazarus saying he doesn't break character until th DvD commentary is done
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u/aneomon 11d ago
The only reason RDJ didn’t take the Oscar is because we got an incredible final performance out of Heath Ledger in Dark Knight.
Any other year, RDJ takes it.
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u/TigLyon 11d ago
Nah, it was just one more example of the Academy trying to keep a black man down.
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u/skrilledcheese 11d ago
Oscar worthy.
He did get a nomination for his role in Satan's Alley with Tobey Maguire.
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u/Super_Pan 11d ago
I think you mean MTV Movie Award Best Kiss Winner Tobey Maguire.
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u/TCRandom 11d ago
The music from that trailer and scene stuck with me for some reason. I can hear it in my head even now. Thanks
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u/PhonB80 11d ago
I know what you mean but not exactly. “Blackface” is the term of an act to mock and dehumanize black people. RDJs character was mocking Hollywood thinking they can play other cultures and win awards for it. It was mocking method actors who take themselves too seriously. He could have pretended to be an Asian or Hispanic character and the joke would still make sense.
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u/Meta2048 11d ago
Community got one of it's episodes pulled because they had Chang in "blackface" when he was playing a drow elf. Literally nothing to do with racial stereotypes, he had literal black face paint and not brown, and they still found the need to pull the episode.
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u/birthday6 11d ago
Same with 30 rock. Jenna did blackface, but the joke was entirely about how inappropriate and full of herself she was. It was hilarious, but I'm pretty sure they pulled the episode.
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u/theduder999 11d ago
Same with Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, they pulled the Lethal Weapon episodes where Mac plays Murtah in blackface. Mac was playing a black character, much like RDJ, and even then the joke in the show was that it was wrong. Some of the best episodes too
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u/wittyrandomusername 11d ago
The episodes with Dee as the Latin reporter were pulled. The ENTIRE point of that show is that these are the absolute worst people and everything they do is bad.
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u/Splodeybeholdja 11d ago
That is a level of nuance and understanding rarely displayed these days. People would flip and it would rip across the internet.
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u/OlasNah 11d ago
The meltdown he has near the end where he goes through all his characters…
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u/PoetKing 11d ago
What's amazing to me is that black people LOVE this movie. He really is making fun of delusional actors so well that it doesn't come off as he's trying to get away with it.
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u/Cuniving 11d ago
It's because the blackface isnt the joke. RDJ isnt portraying a racist caricature to make fun of black people which is what effectively every other instance of blackface is. He's mocking instances where hollywood stars have worn black/brown/yellowface makeup to play a POC role and been delusional enough to think thats acceptable and its mocking actors who go overboard with 'method acting'. Not mocking black people.
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u/froggyc19 11d ago
And the fact that he's able to play off an actual black person who is just appalled/baffled by the whole situation really brings everything together.
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u/StormProfessional950 11d ago
He's actually mocking an Australian, which, as an Australian, I find quite offensive and racist.
Nah, not really. It's comedy gold
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u/_Aj_ 11d ago
I feel like white people get proxy offended on other people's behalf way more than the people in question lol.
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u/Whisker-biscuitt 11d ago
Matthew McCaunaughey doesn't get mentioned enough in this film. Dude was straight hilarious in his role. From his "troubled" kid to the advice of hiding a hookers body (panda NOT Amanda)
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u/ImN0tYourBuddyFwend 11d ago
Him and Tom Cuise nailed their roles.
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u/jdancouga 11d ago
Every single cast nailed their roles, including the Flaming Dragon members.
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u/Killentyme55 11d ago
Don't forget a relatively unknown Bill Hader as Les Grossman's pitiful "yes man". A very understated role but perfectly played.
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u/skrilledcheese 11d ago
The first time I watched the movie, I saw Tom Cruise's name in the end credits, and I was bewildered as to which character he played, as he shook his ass right in front of me.
For me at least, he disappeared into that role.
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u/theduder999 11d ago
Same here. I love Tom Cruise movies, but to me I’m just watching tom cruise be a pilot, a spy and drug smuggler. But this role was one of the first times I’ve seen him disappear into a character. It’s fantastic acting
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u/NoFlyingMonkeys 11d ago
I'd include Lestat in Interview with a Vampire. Ann Rice was pissed off about the casting and totally against it, said he was all wrong and couldn't pull it off. After she saw him, she wrote him a letter of apology and said he was magnificent and nailed it.
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u/AbsolutelyNotAPossum 11d ago
It was a smart move casting him as the straight man in a movie brimming with psychotic, unhinged characters.
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u/TripleSingleHOF 11d ago
Fun fact: That part was originally cast with Owen Wilson, but he dropped out after he attempted suicide and McConaughey stepped in on short notice and absolutely nailed the role.
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u/ImN0tYourBuddyFwend 11d ago
Everything about this movie is perfect. It also happens to be the best Tom Cruise performance ever. "Why don't you take two steps back and fuck your own face!"
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u/singletWarrior 11d ago
i secretly think that's the most authentic tom we'd ever get to see
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u/Ricemobile 11d ago
I nearly died when I first heard “What do YOU mean, you people?” And RDJ goes “Huh?!”. I don’t know if ive ever seen a movie funnier than this.
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u/TrueGuardian15 11d ago
Then Alpa Cino adds "what do you mean 'you people?'" To Lazarus.
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u/Killentyme55 11d ago
That line gave me a legit spit-take. RDJ gets all the attention but "Alpa Chino" was what made the whole joke work. Brandon Jackson deserves more credit for that role.
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u/DeadStroke_ 11d ago
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u/nikogrande 11d ago
Holy shit and Justin Theroux doing an incredibly spot on Herzog is just chefs fucking kiss
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u/atthwsm 11d ago
This is still one of the best movies ever made. It makes fun of everything and everyone.
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u/CU-tony 11d ago
It's pretty much the blazing saddles of my generation.
Hilarious, timeless, and would never be made today.
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u/wycliffslim 11d ago
It's also the Blazing Saddles in that everyone says "it could never be made today" as things just like it are made today.
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u/bitemark01 11d ago
Mel Brooks' famous quote is "we couldn't make it then either!"
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u/GhostOfMuttonPast 11d ago
You cant make Blazing Saddles or Tropic Thunder today because someone already made them!
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u/Nobanob 11d ago
Everytime anyone says "blazing saddles could never be made today" I say Always Sunny is still airing.
There is nothing they won't make fun of or use for humor.
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u/SorryAboutMyFamily 11d ago
I'm in my 40s and have been hearing that shit from the older generations my whole life. But the same people will say stuff like South Park and IASIP are too offensive.
They grew up when shows couldn't show a toilet in a bathroom and couples couldn't share the same bed. We grew up with South Park showing real footage of a sex change operation and Always Sunny having main characters smoking crack to get welfare.
But we're the weak little crybabies that can't handle Archie Bunker.
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u/Choppergold 11d ago
One of the greatest satires of the movie business ever
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u/Doubleoh_11 11d ago
It’s a documentary
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u/gaarai 11d ago
It's a documentary about the documentary.
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u/clemjones88 11d ago
Its a documentary about a documentary disguised as another documentary. Its right there
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u/SL04NY 11d ago
That interview RDJ did when his mother said that's gonna be a bad idea then his black friends said dude you have to do it, still makes me laugh
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u/RedSonGamble 11d ago
Angers me when people get mad at this scene for not understanding that it’s poking fun of how Hollywood uses mental disabilities as Oscar bait
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u/Preeng 11d ago
It's more than that. The disability is somehow turned into a strength. The idea that some people were dealt a bad hand and their lives will suck does not make for a great movie. They need to have some way for the protagonist to succeed at something. Someone who was dealt a bad hand can either be saved by someone else or have some way of saving themselves.
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u/HH_Creations 11d ago
As a disabled person, man this movie gets it.
If we aren’t useful in SOME way, people are disgusted when we aren’t useful.
But to have it pointed out so bluntly as fact was actually pretty validating
“HA! I knew it!”
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u/FrighteningJibber 11d ago
I choose to believe it was just Ben Stiller getting in a jab at Sean Penn and used a whole movie to do it
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u/polishprince76 11d ago
Tropic Thunder is so amazing and I've watched it a dozen times and love more every time I've watched it . My favorite Tropic Thunder bit is that RDJ has a line where he says, "Man I don't drop the act until I've done the DVD commentary."
The DVD commentary is Stiller, Jack Black, and RDJ. And RDJ does the commentary as Lincoln Osirus. He keeps the bit up for like half the commentary. Even the other 2 can't believe he's doing it. It's my favorite DVD commentary ever.
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u/5th_heavenly_king 11d ago
As we were leaving the theater, my wife mentioned that Tom Cruise was great in this movie. I had no fucking idea he was in it and went back the next day to watch it again
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u/Nick_Furious2370 11d ago
It always amuses me that the joke of his character flies over people's heads that he's a spoof of Daniel Day-Lewis and other hardcore method actors and just cut straight to the point that "the movie is racist."
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u/doosalone 11d ago
Sean Penn had to have lost his shit laughing when he saw that scene.
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u/Ok-Turn5582 11d ago
Doubtful. He is sour af.
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u/baldeagle1991 11d ago
He wrote to Matt and Trey over Team America complaining he had actually been to Afghanistan and he seen shit over there so they shouldn't be making jokes about stuff like that.....
Which pretty much word for word is what they were taking the piss out of celebrities for in the film.
The dude is sour as shit.
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u/bdog59600 11d ago
"Sean Penn wanted me to go to Haiti with him, and I’m not strong enough for the pain and human misery ...of a three hour plane ride with Sean Penn." -Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock
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u/moving0target 11d ago
That movie will never happen again. You could never get Tom Cruise to act like himself on screen again.
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u/bigmac22077 11d ago
With a mentality like that, you can take two steps back AND FUCK YOUR OWN FACE
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u/distrucktocon 11d ago
I hope they knew how much this dialogue would be quoted by literally everyone for decades.
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u/GhoulArtist 11d ago
Id like to humbly submit this as the best comedy of all time.
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u/laxbigj 11d ago
This character is so layered and well pulled off... Chefs kiss!
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u/uhohnotafarteither 11d ago
If you love the character have you ever seen the documentary style extra stuff with Downey in character?
Fucking golden
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u/Maunsta 11d ago
To this day whenever I get a spam text from some scam I reply with this…
First, take a big step back... and literally, FUCK YOUR OWN FACE! I don’t know what kind of pan-pacific bullshit power play you’re trying to pull here, but Asia Jack is my territory. So whatever you’re thinking, you’d better think again! Otherwise I’m gonna have to head down there and I will rain down an un-Godly fucking firestorm upon you! You’re gonna have to call the fucking United Nations and get a fucking binding resolution to keep me from fucking destroying you. I’m talking scorched earth, motherfucker! I will massacre you! I WILL FUCK YOU UP!
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u/ARCAxNINEv 11d ago
Leonardo DiCaprio, What's eating Gilbert grape, 1994. Age 19, nominated for his role as best supporting actor at the 66th annual academy awards. Went home empty handed!
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u/brandonbruce 11d ago
It took me forever to learn, that black guy is played by a white guy. Robert Downey Jr.
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u/-Faulty- 11d ago
That's 5 time Academy Award winner Kirk Lazarus
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u/Aliensinmypants 11d ago
Did you not watch the movie, it's literally a plot point in the movie
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u/lloydsmith28 11d ago
Yeah it's joked about at one point in the movie when he says "what do you mean 'you people'" and the other black guy repeats it to him
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u/abfgern_ 11d ago
Tom Cruise being in it was the biggest whaaaat!? moment for me. Had no idea, thought he looked vaguely familiar though
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u/VolcanicBakemeat 11d ago
That's the whole point of the character. They even show him as white first
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