In an attempt to pump up the already bloated beyond belief viral marketing of his summers blockbuster, “Tropic Thunder,” Ben Stiller has come up with a clever idea: go meta and go big with your movies within a movie and push it to the hilt. He’s already done a “Hearts Of Darkness,”-like documentary trailer, but he’s almost going for broke here.
Stiller’s ‘Thunder’ character is the dim-witted actor Tugg Speedman and Paramount is testing the limits of ridiculous viralocity (new word alert!) by creating faux webpages for his character and websites to his respective filmography (which are all featured in ‘Thunder’ to explain Speedgman’s “backstory.”)
The fake films’ sites are even outfitted with trailers and reviews, attempting to parody Hollywood blockbusters. The first being the ambitious dust-bowl era simpleton story, “Simple Jack,” and the big-budgeted testoserone sci-fi action fest, “Scorcher VI.” Is all seems a little to meta for its own good, but a closer look:
Tugg Speedman: The Official Site
What’s so good about Tugg’s site? Well, for one it mocks the design of Tom Cruise’s sincere homepage and look and aesthetic and that’s an especially good dig considering Cruise has a cameo in “Tropic Thunder.” But as Stiller, er, Speedman notes, maybe it’s all just a bit simpler. “What’s so cool about my website? Well, I like to think of it like a really rad bridge, that lets my fans walk over all the mean stuff the internet says about me. Then at the other end of the bridge, is all the cool stuff dudes say!”
Simple Jack
“What he doesn’t have in his head, he makes up for in his heart.”
Synopsis: Set in the depression era midwest, down on their luck farmers Chet Chetkinson and his wife Rebecca get dealt a winning hand when a traveling carnival leaves a “freak” behind. The stitching on his shirt says “Simple Jack,” but Rebecca quickly learns that he is anything but simple when a ferocious junkyard dog lunges for her and Jack calms the growling beast with a few soft words and some hand gestures. Tugg Speedman stars in what one critic called “one of the most retarded performances in cinema history.”
It is kind of hilarious that “Simple Jack’s” “score” kind of resembles that of Howard Shore’s “Lord Of The Rings” fellowship-like themes.
“If you can’t stand the heat, get outta my face!”
Synopsis: In 1994, audiences held their breath when for the first time in history, the earth’s rotation came to a halt, leaving all of North America on he hot side of the globe. In one week, the sun had scorched half of the earth completely. Luckily, construction worker, divorced father, and ex-navy seal Deke Logan thought the unthinkable. He told the entire population to “stand back, this may sting a little” as he let rip the worlds biggest nuclear cardiogram, again, knocking the earth back onto its axis and back into action.
The pages themselves are admittedly pretty amusing and give hope that the movie may still have some funny in him (last few years haven’t been to kind to the comedian), in spite of the presence of Stiller. What is worrisome though is how it seems that Stiller, whose last writing and direction credit was 2001’s “Zoolander,” has kind of repackaged his Derek Z character and will throw him in the jungle with Jack Black and Robert Downy Jr. and hopes no one notices.
