Fridae

If you're a lesbian woman with a masculine sense of humour or a straight man, then Tropic Thunder is for you. At the recent press screening, the straight men simply loved it, laughing out loud at the smallest jokes, while some women and gay men looked askance at them. Yes, humour is a curious thing...

Written, directed and starring Ben Stiller (Meet the Parents), Tropic Thunder is a comedy about a director trying to film a big-budget Vietnam War movie. Just five days into shooting, the director (Steve Coogan) is told that the production is a month behind schedule. He promptly dumps his actors (Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr, among others) in a real jungle so they can get into their roles more quickly and convincingly, but there they encounter a real band of heroin smugglers who try to kill them.

Tropic Thunder trades on the typical fratboy humour that has made folks like Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell so in demand. That said though, there are some truly strong comic turns by Robert Downey Jr as an Australian method actor and Tom Cruise as the fat, balding Hollywood exec.

As mentioned before, straight men and lesbian women seem to find the jokes and gags utterly hysterical � witnessed by the people rolling in the aisles at the press screening � while LGBTs with slightly more refined tastes may feel frustrated by the fact that they just... don't... get... it... grrrr...