Initially, I thought the trailer looked terrible. However, while they certainly don't have perfect track records, I had faith that Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and Ben Stiller couldn't possibly all decide to do a movie together if it was that bad. I didn't realize, of course, that the movie's cast didn't stop there. I was surprised when Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise showed up. I was surprised even more that Tom Cruise was smurfing awesome (and I dislike him so much that I usually can't look past Tom Cruise to the character).
I think Tropic Thunder did something that most movies of its kind fail to do properly. It never took itself seriously. I think the premise aided this. The actors were playing actors whose characters were ridiculous and overblown. This whole movie was ridiculous and overblown. Usually this descends into stupidity and fail, but for some reason... Tropic Thunder succeeded. I'm not quite sure what exactly made it so awesome, but I don't think I've laughed so hard and so often in a movie in my life. I can't think of a single joke in the movie that I didn't think was worthy of a laugh, no matter how stupid (or sometimes admittedly lame) it was. Somehow, they always managed to pull it off.
Opinions?