2008 / Ben Stiller > Riding on the waves of a star-studded cast and one of the best (and funniest) marketing campaigns for a comedy I’ve ever seen, Tropic Thunder had some of the highest expectations I’ve had for a film all year. But, as it often happens when a lot of big egos join together in one project, the film ends up being more a collection of multiple hilarious scenes rather than a successful, comedic whole. Specifically on point are Robert Downey, Dr. and the head-splitting brilliance of Tom Cruise who both take their ridiculous characters to the perfect level of seriousness. But staggering behind seems to be Ben Stiller, whose schtick, however self-deprecating, feels overused and works mainly as a vehicle to move the story forward. Some of the lines, admittedly, are some of the funniest in recent film memory, though one of the most underrated may be Jack Black’s (after shoving heroine into a couple of guards’ faces): “Let’s move! We only have 16 hours before they wake up!”