Tropic Thunder

Great movie performances turn up in the darndest places. Consider Tropic Thunder: It could easily have been just another lowbrow chucklefest, but Ben Stiller’s take on the high-testosterone idiocy of Hollywood blockbusterism is one of the season’s smart and surprising delights.

This is partly due to the movie’s take-no-prisoners attitude toward the very industry that produced it. Then there’s Robert Downey Jr., whose turn as an Australian method actor who has his skin pigmented in order to play an African-American commando is one of the most fearless things you’ll see onscreen.

Downey charges right up the hill of Hollywood’s political correctness with guns blazing. In one gratuitous scene, he lectures a speechless Brandon T. Jackson (a genuine African-American actor) on the tragic history of an especially ugly racial slur. You’ll be astounded, appalled and blown away.

Now playing inflight on the Hollywood Movies channel on enRoute on Demand.