I liked the support from both Baruchel and Jackson, who held their own alongside the starry cast. Black is a necessary evil but at least his character's drug addiction makes him of value within the satire even if his performance is still a fat guy shouting. Downey Jr is very impressive as the deep-method actor who produces the controversy.
Stiller is solid throughout and works his character as well as he makes fun of him. The cast are a big part of making it work.
Somehow though it just about works by just going all out for it and things like the racial issues, anti-Semitic stuff etc all hang together sufficiently. On the other hand you have those who love the silliness of it but don't really "get" it when it is trying to make digs even if they laugh their heads off at a character eating blood in the misunderstanding of it being a special effect. See as a satire it is undeniably broad and clumsy with the digs being made in clever but still quite obvious ways and you do have plenty of laughs that are knock-about that don't sit with those looking for smart satire. To explain that better I should probably say what I mean rather than referring to furniture and backsides. I think the film doesn't always succeed though because it sort of straddles two stools and those who want one or the other will have reservations while the smaller number who recognise both stools will perhaps see flaws on both. The daft plot allows for micky-taking in regards big studio action movies, spoilt actors, bad projects, studio executives and so on it is never sensible but it is mostly very funny. Here and there it gets very close to falling over that line (eg all of Tom Cruise's stuff) but if you are with it then it manages to just about stay on the right side of the line. The "black-face" issue has been mentioned in regards the film walking a fine line between being funny or offensive but to me the bigger tightrope act is between being funny and being stupidly silly. When I went to see this film I hadn't expected it to be much more than a basic comedy but the reality is that this is a pretty smart satire of Hollywood and movie acting that also produces silly laughs one would expect from a Ben Stiller film. Sadly when Cockburn is killed by a mine mere minutes into the mission, the cast are left in the middle of a dangerous jungle, not entirely sure of whether this is real or not. Director Damien Cockburn makes a decision that the experiences of "Four Leaf" Tayback will be best captured on film by dropping the basic cast in the jungle and forcing them to experience as close to reality as possible while catching it all on camera. When an all-star Vietnam film is put in the hands of a first time British director, the results are an ego-dominated shambles that is a month behind schedule after only five days of shooting.
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