Run through the jungle

Events on the set of a war movie go slightly awry in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder (2008), a movie that has as many misses as hits, but when it hits it does so brilliantly. Helped along by a stellar cast (standouts: Robert Downey Jr., as an actor who takes his job VERY seriously, and the much talked about stunt casting of Tom Cruise), Tropic parodies everything from Apocalypse Now to, well, Hearts of Darkness (a movie about the making of Apocalypse Now). Best line: "I don't break character until the DVD commentary."