Ben Stiller… he’s a hard one. For most it’s a love or hate deal; you either bust a gut every time his awkward antics push his rubbery face into another panicked outburst or… you don’t. What ever your thoughts on the man, his new production Tropic Thunder may win you over which ever side of the fence you sit on.

The beauty of Tropic Thunder is that this is a Ben Stiller film that doesn’t rely solely on Ben Stiller. In fact this hilarious tale of a film shoot gone wrong may sport one of the years strongest casts in Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Steve Coogan and Nick Nolte to name a few.

The movie follows the fateful production of a Tropic Thunder, a cinematic adaptation of the book of the same name; penned by Nolte’s character after he and several fellow soldiers executed a daring rescue mission during the Vietnam War. The mollycoddled group of actors brought together to tell the story are at odds from day one and the interaction between such endearing and well written characters is superb.

Soon enough the production strays across the Vietnam border into hostile country and before you can say holy exploding actor, things get very real for our cast; of course, they think the cameras are still rolling and go to war with the local forces.

From Downey’s Crow-esque, method acting, Australian thespian to Jack Black’s smack addled, throw away comedy veteran, the characters written into Tropic Thunder are instantly relatable and serve to lampoon the Hollywood machine and in many ways parody those who are portraying them.

The dialogue is quick and the action never settles long enough to lose the audiences attention. Combine this with the more than one earth shaking pyrotechnic display and you’ve got a high-octane ride with a swag of laughs along the way.

This is indeed every way a different beast to Stiller’s recent comedy work, but so broadly appealing is the story and production quality of Tropic Thunder this could easily be labelled his best film to date.