10 Movies Much Better Than The One Thing You Remember Them For

6. Tropic Thunder

Robert Downey Jr Tropic Thunder
DreamWorks Pictures

What You Remember It For: Tom Cruise dancing/Robert Downey Jr. doing blackface

When it comes to Tropic Thunder, it’s a direct 50/50 split between what people remember the most: Tom Cruise’s bonkers movie producer, Les Grossman; or Robert Downey Jr’s eccentric actor, Kirk Lazarus, doing blackface until the DVD commentary.

Both are hilarious in their roles, with Cruise playing so far against type that it's almost unbelievable to watch, and Downey earning an Academy Award nod for his work. They're both flamboyant, larger-than-life characters, so it's no surprise to see that they've become Tropic Thunder's mascots, and while they do deliver many of its standout comedic moments, they're not the sole reasons the movie works as a whole.

Ben Stiller's direction is fantastic, with the funnyman somehow managing to find the humour in a blood-and-guts-filled satire of older Vietnam War films. Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Stiller also turn in memorable performances, and there are tons of hilarious gags, like the opening riff on Apocalypse Now's famous explosion, and the whole "I killed a panda" section.

And that's even without mentioning some of the fake trailers seen throughout the movie. Who doesn't want to see Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown?!

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!