Soundtrack Review: 'Tropic Thunder'

The movie "Tropic Thunder" was co-written and directed by Ben Stiller, and, he also stars in the action comedy. Justin Theroux was his co-screenwriter. The plot concerns a self-absorbed cast making a big budget war movie. They travel to Southeast Asia for the realism.

There, they end up really playing soldiers against the real bad guys. The movie stars Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. (who decides to go black for his role); and cameos by Tom Cruise, Nick Nolte, Tobey Maguire, Matthew McConaughey, Mickey Rooney. The original score was composed by Theodore Shapiro. He has written music for movies, TV shows and concerts. His other works include the music for the films "Fun With Dick and Jane," "The Devil Wears Prada," and "Blades of Glory." The orchestra was conducted by Pete Anthony. The 22 tracks are all pretty short, the longest is 3:56 minutes. They seem to flow together as one big piece of music, which is good in one way, boring the other. They all sound similar.A musical theme runs through them, "Da, da, dadada, da" performed on the strings or the drums. There's lots and lots of percussion, strings, woodwinds and horns. Some tracks feature an Asian musical flavor via flutes and vocals. At times, some of the tunes are symphonic, such as track #21, "Satan's Alley.".You get a feel for being in the jungle and the physical action in the movie. The track that I liked best was the wild #11 "Don't Judge Me." It is quite representative of all the tracks. The swirl of the percussion, strings, horns, flutes, some electronic sounds, trumpets with lots of crazy cymbals, brings to mind being out in the Southeast Asian jungle and lots of action happening. The last piece, #22 "Cue Bill Conti" may be an homage for the famous composer of film and TV. Taken as a whole, and on its on merits, the "Tropic Thunder" CD would be good to exercise to with its energetic percussion.