It had to happen, and now it has. The Dark Knight has lost the No. 1 spot after five weeks at the top. The victor is Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller's comic bite on the Hollywood hand that feeds him. But don't get too excited. The Dark Knight took the No. 2 spot with $16.8 million, bringing its total so far to $471.5 million, passing the $461 million earned by the original Stars Wars to become—ta-da—the second biggest box-office hit in like EVER! Only Titanic with its $600 million total remains an obstacle—an insurmoutable one, I'd bet. But Stiller—the director, producer, co-writer and star— deserves his place in the summer box-office sun. There had been talks of picketing stemming from the use of the word "retard" in a scene in which Robert Downey, Jr., in blackface as an Aussie actor getting into character as a African-American soldier, tells Stiller about the dangers of going "full retard" if you want to win an Oscar. Nearly two dozen advocacy groups for the intellectually disabled protested. But the publicity made no dent at the box office, maybe because the target of the joke is not the mentally challenged but the egotism of Hollywood actors.
Tropic wasn't able to match the $41.2 million five-day opening for Pineapple Express the previous week, and its $100 million production cost gives it a tougher time making a profit than Pineapple, which cost under $30 million. But consider another factoid: Tropic Thunder built its audience over the five days, while Pineapple Express dwindled, leaving us with the question that really counts:
Which movie is funnier: Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express?Which deserves the title as Best Comedy of the Summer? To be fair, you can include any other summer comedy. Go ahead, pick Step Brothers or Get Smart or Vicky Cristina Barcelona or Hamlet 2 or—god forbid—What Happens in Vegas, You Don't Mess with the Zohan or even The Love Guru. But I want your reasons. The floor is yours.
Share
Email
Stumble
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS
Anne Siebenhoven | October 7, 2008 9:52 PM
Pineapple Express, hands down the funniest movie I've ever seen. James Franco just brings it, with a performance that is as enchanting to listen to as it is to watch.
There's a bereftness about Saul that would break your heart, only he turns out to be so much tougher and smarter than you would think.
Tropic Thunder was a lot of fun, but doesn't come near PE for its combination of laughs, thrills and sweetness. Oh, and did I mention James Franco?
Anonymous | September 12, 2008 11:11 AM
I laughed at a lot of movies this summer... but Tropic Thunder was not one of them. It was mid-level shit and only the cameos were remotely funny. The only thing that really made me laugh out loud during the whole thing was the novlety of Tom Cruise's dumb scientologist ass in a James Lipton look-alike get-up.
Paul | September 6, 2008 11:56 PM
tropic thunder isi laughed so hard i couldn't breath. it is most defantly the best comedy of this year tops them all.
troy | September 1, 2008 1:20 AM
tropic thunder comes out on top for me. I laughed so much more than in pineapple express. The opening trailers from tt killed me.
Kip Mooney | August 26, 2008 3:50 PM
Comedy-wise, it's simple:
Tropic Thunder was genius except for Cruise dancing. It's #1.
#2 would be Pineapple Express because there were too many things that kept it from being brilliant (too violent, the fact that Rogen's dating a high school student).
#3 I suppose would be Get Smart.
Comedies were strictly average this summer. I hope Hamlet 2 is much better.
Wish I Could Be There | August 25, 2008 7:18 PM
I wish I had a babysitter for my kid so I could go see Tropic Thunder. Friends have told me it's the funniest comedy they've seen in 10 years.
The Man Himself | August 24, 2008 3:22 AM
Three words...
Robert Downey Jr.
WLH | August 22, 2008 10:16 PM
Step Brothers and Pineapple Express were miles better than Tropic Thunder, which was still really funny.
One movie that has been completely forgotten about, probably because it was out for a week, was The Promotion with Seann William Scott, John C. Reilly, and Jenna Fischer. That was one of the funniest and best movies of the year along with Forgetting Sarah Marshall,and In Bruges
Alex | August 22, 2008 9:44 PM
I dunno... as much as I liked Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express, Last year was an AMAZING summer for comedy. Knocked Up and Superbad are two modern day comedy classics.
dr greenthumb | August 21, 2008 8:41 PM
I laughed out loud more at Pineapple than i did at Tropic Thunder
Chris Price | August 21, 2008 3:50 AM
Its been a pretty great year for comedy so far, I got a lot to laugh at and the only comedy I saw this year that was obviously a big miss was Strange Wilderness (and even then I laughed at a few more bits than most shitty comedies).
I got 2 questions:
1. If we're talking about the summer, what's the time frame? Is it between Iron Man and Tropic Thunder? Or does it start in April and end in September? Or are we even more flexible?
2. What constitutes a comedy in this argument? Looking at some of the more creative suggestions on this talkback (Wall-E, Indy 4, Dark Knight), I'm confused as to what we're talking about.
The way I see it, this should be about movies that are intentionally and at least mostly consistently funny. I think that would leave Dark Knight and Indy 4 out of this discussion. Wall-E is debatable I guess, but most animated films have a strong sense of humor so I'm not sure they apply. Especially when considering that this particular film is one of the bleaker animated pictures ever released (relatively of course). And my answer to the first question is summer is from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so anything before and after that time frame is ineligible.
Here's my top 5 comedies of the summer:
1. Pineapple Express
2. Tropic Thunder (close second)
3. Step Brothers
4. The Foot Fist Way
5. Get Smart
I haven't seen Hamlet 2 yet and I'm dying to, full disclosure.
Here's an expanded list to include all comedies I've seen this year:
1. Pineapple Express
2. Tropic Thunder
3. Step Brothers
4. In Bruges**
5. The Foot Fist Way
6. Get Smart
7. Semi-Pro
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
10. Drillbit Taylor
11. You Don't Mess With The Zohan
12. Strange Wilderness
Movies I thought to put here but didn't think they fit:
Hancock (shit movie, would be between Zohan and Wilderness)
Charlie Bartlett (pretty bad also, just above Hancock)
Be Kind Rewind (didn't think it really applied, more of a light film than a laugh out loud comedy, although if it did it would be number 3 or 4 on this list)
Vicky Cristina Barcelona (if it didn't have the clinical narrator, and the heavy-ish ending, maybe. it would be just under get smart)
**This is the biggest question mark on my list, but I think of it as a black comedy and I had to include it because I laughed harder in this than most movies this year.
mt | August 20, 2008 4:48 PM
1) Forgetting Sarah Marshall* (A superbly written comedy. Don't tell me it got dragged down by the dramatic scenes, and that the laughs per minute ratio wasn't that good, when the laughs came, they hit hard)
2) Tropic Thunder (Very original effort by Stiller that was better than I expected)
3) Pinapple Express (Perhaps my expectations were too high, considering I believed it was going to be another Apatow produced comedy classic like Superbad and Knocked Up. Still a solid movie overall)
4) Step Brothers (an average Ferrell comedy; I wish we could get something as original and funny as Anchorman)
5) Any dark humor related scene with the Joker in The Dark Knight (RIP Heath Ledger)
*If it counts as a summer movie, in which case number two starts as number one
Ryan (again) | August 20, 2008 4:19 PM
I compltley forgot about "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"
I would rank it after Step Brothers. It was better than TT and Pineapple Express
Ryan | August 20, 2008 4:16 PM
First off, this summer has had 3 of the best comedies in a long time. Honestly, I go with Step Brothers number 1. The immature humor just gets to me. I think Tropic Thunder would be number two. I think Pineapple may have overall been funnier but I don't think it was as entertaining as TT. so to review
Step Brothers 4.5 stars
Tropic Thunder 4 stars (better writing)
Pineapple Express 4 stars
DJ | August 20, 2008 12:25 PM
While Pineapple may have been a better movie then step brothers it wasnt funnier, so Stop Brothers takes the title for me, you just cant beat Ferrel and Riley together.
Benjamin Burt | August 20, 2008 3:22 AM
Honestly, Hamlet 2 takes it for me. I saw an advance screening last week (after I'd seen Pineapple Express twice but before I'd seen Tropic Thunder) and I about died laughing. Steve Coogan is brilliant! It's offensive, but makes a valid point about it's offensiveness... and uses how offensive it is to make the point. And I live in Arizona, so the Tucson jokes were that much funnier.
Between Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder... I give it to Pineapple Express, but it's close. Tropic Thunder had some great one-liners (almost exclusively from Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise) but Pineapple Express had better characters. All the humor came from somewhere real. You could really believe and feel for these guys as they got deeper and deeper in over their heads. And you have to give points to any stoner movie that includes a monologue about how bad drugs are and actually means it.
Which is not to say I didn't like Ben Stiller's labor of love. I actually liked it a lot. I just went on a bit too long and even the funniest jokes (like Downey in blackface) got a little stale after a while.
But Hamlet 2 definitely made me feel "raped in the face" from laughing so hard.
Keezy | August 20, 2008 12:47 AM
Kudos to the guy who called Indy a joke.
Personally, I thought Tropic Thunder kept the laughs rolling for longer. After the guns start coming out in The Pineapple Express, the laughs almost diminish. The plot seemed contrived, taking away one key component of the Apatow formula's core: some sense of reality. Even SuperBad--with its "McLovin wins the hearts of the cops" escapism was grounded in a somewhat realistic situation, and the comedy that stemmed from it was all the funnier. This one really lacked the punch of all the other ones, though I thought that the first third of the movie was priceless and the cast was superb (Where in the hell did Danny McBride come from?)
Tropic Thunder's humor was more satirist, and that could be one reason I thought it was funnier. But the movie also had enough slapstick to keep the other side of the laugh coin tickled. Plus, Cruise as "Grossman" (gimme a break, we all know who he's supposed to be)was a nice twist.
I'm just hoping that the "Apatow crew=must see comedy" scale doesn't tip with The Pineapple Express, as it is seeming to happen with this new Michael Cera movie. I think I've seen that movie three times, and each time it's been an academy darling...is hollywood getting their fingers on the offbeat comedy movement?
goo | August 20, 2008 12:12 AM
pineapple express by far. and perhaps the funniest movie of the last several years. franco and rogen only feed off of eachother's nonsence hilariousness while mcbried (as red) plays the troubled middleman. its as much of an action film as a comedy, which only adds to its funny factor and makes it one of the greatest MOVIES of all time. watching a fast paced action movie through the eyes of two clueless stoners is the most interesting movie exprerience since watching hannibal lecter dissect clarice's brain from inside a jail cell in 1991. kudos to pineapple express for delivering the hardest hitting jokes this summer. also saul has some undeniable cool factor nobody can seem to place there finger on. just a great film that easily deserves comedy of the summer
Curt | August 19, 2008 9:31 PM
Pineapple Express is by far the funniest summer movie. Tropic Thunder had funny parts but still it doesnt touch pineapple. I agree that Forgetting Sarah Marshall was hilarious and didnt get the credtit it deserved
lefrauens | August 19, 2008 8:13 PM
Pineapple Express was very funny! I am not big on Ben Stiller movies. Something unfunny about a comedy in Vietnam........
jeff | August 19, 2008 7:41 PM
I'd probably have to go
1)Tropic Thunder
2) Pineapple
because really I just found Tropic to be genuinely funnier, and Downey was absolutely brilliant in it. A distant distant last I'd put step brothers. I love will Ferrell but if that is him writing his own script please let others write your script for you. I'm hoping big things for Hamlet 2
steeeve | August 19, 2008 3:38 PM
Both Harold and Kumar movies are way funnier the Pineapple Express, more randomness better dialouge... Seth Rogan isn't fnny anymore he does the same shit everytime
RL | August 19, 2008 3:25 PM
The only one of those I've seen was Pineapple Express and it was funnier than a loud fart. The fight scene in Red's apt was epic.
tsunami stoner | August 19, 2008 3:14 PM
Summer Comedy Rankings while high:
1. You don't mess with the Zohan
2. Tropic Thunder
3. Speed Racer
4. Step Brothers
5. Pineapple Express
Bo | August 19, 2008 2:42 PM
This doesn't agree with the Peter's post well, but somebody mentioned WALL-E and Dark Knight, which are two much over-rated films from America this summer. Remember the numerous great little adventures from Finding Nemo, the shark meeting, the problems with the deep-sea fish, the turtles? ... Nothing of that sort in WALL-E. The first part is technically great, unprecedented, but the second and the bigger part is quite bad for Pixar's standards. The human characters?! ...
And Dark Knight is just a summer popcorn with explosions and a bit better and cleverer script than usual. Ledger is good, but than not that good as goes the hype. I am disappointed by American movies this summer and have no particular wish for either of the new comedies mentioned.
dan | August 19, 2008 2:06 PM
IVe seen pineapple express 3 times its soo much better than tropic than tropic thunder. I hate when people judge a movie because of the cast, yea we know that tropic had all the stars but pineapple was hands down funnier. I went in to pineapple not thinking it was going to be that great because the previews showed the least funny parts. I mean the "dumpster" joke? cmon that was not that funny but the whole movie is hilarious five stars. Dont forget matheson (the black dude) funniest character ive seen in a while.
dammitann | August 19, 2008 1:54 PM
If Tom Cruise had played Tugg Speedman this would have been worthy of Mel Brooks. Downey stole this movie. He was brilliant.
Pineapple Express was funnier, but only by a joint.
Stanks | August 19, 2008 1:23 PM
Am I the only one who thinks Wall-E trumped all else?
Pineapple Express is the stoner comedy of my generation, but no stoner wants that amount of graphic violence.
Tropic Thunder, though predictable at times, was consistently hilarious throughout. I would've liked more Jack Black, but then again, no quantity of JB can slake my thirst for his flavor of comedy.
Step Brothers proved once and for all that without an impeccable script (anchorman, stranger than fiction) Will Farrell just isn't that funny.
Wall-E, however, provided emotional characters, endless smiles, a positive message, and no cheezy pop culture references. Hands down, my favorite summer comedy.
Mojoryder | August 19, 2008 1:08 PM
I'm a fan of dark humour, and nothing was as darkly funny as Heath Ledger's take on the Joker. My sides hurt he was so over the top diabolical.
Marissa | August 19, 2008 12:54 PM
Neither Pineapple Express nor Tropic Thunder (though products of different comedic groups so the comparison should bear that in mind) are not nearly as good as former works done by the actors of the respective films. I believe it's safe to say that Knocked Up is better than Pineapple Express, and let's say There's Something About Mary is better than Tropic Thunder. Both fail to obtain the comic chokehold on America that these former films had. Pineapple Express: Saul and Red are the best parts of that movie (ending scene trumps all). Tropic Thunder: Robert Downey, Jr. should have been the star as opposed to Stiller...because he's funnier and a better actor.
Movie Mike | August 19, 2008 11:19 AM
Tropic Thunder is the funniest movie since Anchorman. Downey deserves an Oscar nom.
"Pump the brakes kid, that man is a national treasure."
Nikki P | August 19, 2008 11:02 AM
I thought Tropic Thunder was way better than Pineapple Express. I mean Pineapple Express was funny, but going to the movie theatre, I felt like I have seen the whole movie already in the previews, they had showed all the funny parts on the commercials. I also think that Seth Rogen's chacters are mostly all the same, so his part was more than predictable. James Franco did a great job though. But hands down I think Tropic Thunder takes it. They have a better cast, funnier situations and the commercials they play before the movie even begins were great.
Tiffany | August 19, 2008 9:42 AM
I've seen Pineapple Express four times and the same jokes were still funny the fourth time around. The second time I saw Tropic Thunder I fell asleep, no kidding.
Bon | August 19, 2008 2:57 AM
1. Tropic Thunder- Worthy of second viewings, some jokes didn't land (Tom Cruise danced for too long) but Downey, Black, and Stiller killed it.
2. Pineapple Express- Often funny, good chemistry, Franco was the best part, too much of an action movie to be the best comedy
3. Get Smart- Arkin was awesome, Carrell was good, plot was predictable, meh, average.
4. Step Brothers- One of Ferrell's weaker ones, lots of the same joke, belly laughed once.
?. Hamlet 2- I expect this to top Pineapple and maybe even Thunder, high hopes. Rock Me Sexy Jesus
Eric | August 19, 2008 1:20 AM
1. Tropic Thunder
2. Pineapple Express
3. Step Brother
4. Shutter (DVD.. The most unintentionally hilarious movie ever. Get a bunch of friends together and pick it apart.)
5. News of Transformers 2. (Its nice to see Michael Bay finally find his depth.)
I love Tropic Thunder because it actually takes chances. I haven't had gut laughs at a movie in a long time. Superbad was interesting in a "I remember high school" kind of way, but outside of Kevin Smith films Hollywood has been pumping out dull shit for a while now.
The blackface is inspired, I almost cried at the Simple Jack promo, and Jack Black is way less annoying in Tropic. Stiller also brilliantly gets the offensive stuff in early, so the entire course of the film, you know he is willing to go there.
Matt09 | August 18, 2008 11:28 PM
I'd have to go with Pineapple Express. James Franco and Seth Rogen are a buddy pair for the ages. Has everyone forgotten Forgetting Sarah Marshall? If Pineapple Express is this year's Superbad, Sarah Marshall is certianly it's Knocked Up. So what if it came out in May? That still counts as summer if Iron Man and Indy debut then. Sure Tropic Thunder bites Hollywood in the ass, but those other two have more emotive substance.
Dean Essner | August 18, 2008 11:02 PM
1. Tropic Thunder
2. Pineapple Express
3. Step Brothers
4. Get Smart
5. The first half of Hancock
john Satterfield-Doerr | August 18, 2008 8:34 PM
tropic thunder because the movie stays with you longer. Downey deserves an oscar nomination.
Kevin | August 18, 2008 5:46 PM
Pineapple Express had more in the way of quotable lines and belly laughs coupled with emotional reality and story, albeit a stoner/action derivative. Tropic Thunder played like an extra long sketch from The Ben Stiller Show. Some good parts snuck in there, like the retard scene and Tom Cruise, but overall it was predictable and over-hammed.
Mike Pecora | August 18, 2008 4:41 PM
Pineapple Express hands down. Tropic Thunder is a close third to Step Brothers. Step Brothers is criminally underrated and I think it will be a hit on DVD. Pineapple Express was just unique and the actions set it apart
JLB | August 18, 2008 4:13 PM
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", for the simple fact that calling it an Indiana Jones movie is the biggest joke anyone has ever pulled. I don't even know if it belongs in the same catagory as The Mummy films.