Vanity Cases.(Tropic Thunder)(Movie review)

Make sure that you take your seat for "Tropic Thunder" in good time, because all the best jokes are at the start. Before it gets under way, you have to sit through the usual slew of previews and commercials, and there is a delectable moment when you realize that these particular previews are not quite as usual as usual. There is one for "Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown," and one for an immensely solemn gay-monk drama, "winner of the Beijing Film Festival's coveted Crying Monkey Award," with a closeup of fingers interlacing around a rosary. (Its title is much too droll to give away.) The sleight of hand survives into the main feature, a searing tale of courage from the ...