Should Robert Downey Jr. Have Been Nominated for An Oscar for Tropic Thunder?
In the dead of winter, there are only a few things people do to keep themselves busy. This would include lots of indoor sex and lots of movie watching. (Don’t pretend you can’t relate) It is also the time everybody everywhere discusses the nominees of the upcoming Academy Awards. In my opinion, the Academy Awards are very over-hyped. Boring and dull movies for which the snobby “Print” Press rave up to be breath-taking and spectacular are always the front runners, while movies the general public watched and loved are lucky to be recognized at The MTV Movie Awards.
Sure, there are always those cool underdog nominees that surprise you year after year like Terrence Howard for Hustle and Flow, Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean, and Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. Seeing those actors being nominated was incredible, despite the fact that everybody knew that there wasn’t a chance in hell they were taking the beloved Oscar trophy home. (Eddie Murphy must still be kicking himself for Norbit.)
However, when the Academy announced that Robert Downey Jr. had “earned” a supporting actor nomination for his role as Kirk Lazarus, the pompous Aussie method actor who undergoes surgery that darkens his skin so he can play an African-American sergeant, I was flabbergasted.
While majority of filmgoers were stunned over the ‘snubbing’ of The Dark Knight, (something everybody should have expected anyways) I, on the other hand was wondering what the Academy had been smoking to make such a bizarre nomination choice. The world has seen some amazing changes in the past year. Inaugurating the first visible minority President has definitely promoted and encouraged the idea of ‘racial unity.’ How the Academy members had thought that nominating an actor in ‘blackface’ was appropriate is beyond me.
Even if we hadn’t seen any positive changes in the past year, what had made the Academy think that ANYTHING in Tropic Thunder was worthy of a nomination period?
I know the general public had thought Tropic Thunder was the funniest movie of 2008, but just like how I felt about Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up, the inner “print snob” in me felt the film was fairly overhyped. Sorry to say, but Tropic Thunder just did not induce the knee-buckling laughter the trailers and my peers made me think it would. The concept was inventive, but all I kept thinking was, ‘Is this supposed to be funny?’ ‘Am I supposed to be laughing and did this movie require such an outlandish budget?’ There were literally parts in the movie when I was laughing uncomfortably because I had no idea of what to think of what I was witnessing onscreen.
Did the world really think the unexpected extended cameo of a potty-mouthed Tom Cruise dancing to that dreaded “Low” song that annoyingly got stuck in people’s heads after all the needless Step Up 2 television spots was all that funny? It just seemed like something that would have been hilarious in 1998 rather than 2008. Not to mention that the film used curse words so excessively that they were making adverbs out of them and a lot of the offensive jokes were something you would have seen way back in a first season episode of South Park. 
Sure, Robert Downey Jr. had some funny lines and that “full-retard” speech was classic, but really, most of Robert Downey Jr.’s lines were clichéd and stereotypical. Most of his lines only worked when he was working alongside the young actor who played the rapper turned actor in the film. In my opinion, if anybody was going to “Forrest Gump” their way to an Oscar nomination, that kid deserved it.
Poor Robert Downey Jr. All these years of working hard and choosing worthy roles, hoping for the chance of being nominated again, and all he had to do was talk about eating collard greens and recite lyrics from the theme song of The Jeffersons to get recognized once again? That just makes NO sense to me.
This is why I do not even like watching the Academy awards anymore due to the fact that it’s all about politics. Is Robert Downey Jr. really getting nominated for his performance? No. He’s getting nominated because he was recognized by the media for being a bankable actor once again. (I refuse to use the word ‘comeback’ because I don’t think Robert Downey Jr. ever had has been status)
Think about all the roles Robert Downey Jr. could have been nominated for if he had just chosen to do them after Iron Man. His portrayal of Harry Lockhart in the much overlooked Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or even his portrayal as Tommy, Holly Hunter’s hilarious and eccentric homosexual brother in Home for the Holidays (my personal favourite) could have been noticed. Sh*t, even his performance in Gothika could have gotten a nomination. (Or at least a Golden Globe nomination…lol)
I think Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing actor and he is long overdue for Oscar nomination, but just like Denzel Washington’s nomination and win for Training Day, he is simply being nominated for being likeable rather than being the ‘best’ supporting actor. This is sad because other actors missed out on being nominated. Poor Leonardo Dicaprio can’t even practice his annual graceful losing face this year because of this.
So what do you guys think? Do you think this is a deserved nomination or do you agree that it was a wrong choice? Either way, let’s cross our fingers for a posthumous win for Heath Ledger! He’s the man who truly deserves this award.
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Oh, I think he deserved it. The role itself may not be something special and he got most attention for playing “blackface” (The irony is that most people don’t seem to get that just because someone has a black face, it’s not necessary a “blackface”), but if the way he played it wasn’t a great example of comedy timing and making a silly over the top character believable, then I don’t know what is. But think positive. Maybe now happens what I call “The Johnny Depp effect”. After Depp gave over years one great performance after another without getting nominated, he suddenly got his first nod for a funny pirate movie that was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the favourite enemy of the wannabe-intellectual moviegoes and film critic. But now the academy is willing to recognize him. how many times was he nominated after “Pirates”? Two times? Three times? The same could happen to Downey Jr.
And I agree that Tropic Thunder itself is slightly overrated. It’s funny, but not THAT funny. (And I downright HATE the joke in the end, when everybody is saved by the Tivo. They tried so hard to establish a sorta “realistic” humor and then they blow it 5 minutes before the end credits by using a joke that could be right out of “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan”.)
I just wonder if Heath Ledger’s performance in TDK counts as “going full retard”. (Too soon?)
Personally I do feel Downey Jr. deserved the nomination. The film itself i agree was not as funny as i had perceived it would be going into it but he did manage to elevate a second rate role into something much more than what it could have been (im looking at you C. Thomas Howell for soul man!). Granted Ledger does obviously deserved the nomination and win for The Dark Knight but nothing could be said against the performance of the dude playin a dude disguised as another dude. In lesser less talented hands this would have been downright offensive but with his skill level it was comic gold aside from the shock value of seein someone perform in black face.
Tropic Thunder was far from being the years funniest movie (that goes to will smiths seven pounds) i still had a blast watching it.
It’s about time the Academy nominated some comic roles now and then. Comedy is harder to pull off than drama. To get the timing right, the cadence right, to play an offensive character without offending anyone is very tricky. The only roles the Academy nominates 99% of the time are dark, depressing, tortured characters and it really gets old. They (usually) completely ignore the other half of the acting world. So it’s a real treat when they recognize comedy for how hard it really is. As far as I’m concerned, RDJ deserves a nomination for almost every role he has ever played, including his work in Tropic Thunder.