"Why would Dustin Hoffman apologize for Rain Man. He was not making fun of anyone."

NOW YOU GET IT!!!!!!!   The question is - what is Stiller doing? You say you readng that he is making fun of autitic, but there are others who say that is just not true. Depending on who you read, he may be doing exactly the same thing as the others.

Let's not forget Forest Gump!!!!


"In fact the character he is portraying, the one called "retard" 16 times, is based on Sly Stallone/Bruce Willis type action hero actors. "

Partially. It is also based on actors who take on roles of handicapped as a ploy to save failing careers and gain some attention. Think of all those actors who take rolls as someone with an incurable disease, handicap, or other challenge. If you watched the clip, the basis of the "16" times appears to come from a scene where Stiller and Downey characters are discussing roles they played. The character that Stiller played was in a movie where he played a challenged individual and the movie was a bomb and he received bad reviews. The character is questiong that he went "full retard" - which, in the clip I saw, was making fun of actors who are so shallow that they do not feel anything for the character they play but only take such roles to get in the spotlight. These are the unthinking and uncaring actors who show up at charity events just to get facetime with the camera and care nothing about the event.

Stiller and the film are getting some acclaim.
New York Times:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/movies/13trop.html?th&#

USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2008-08-12-tropic-thunder_N.htm?csp=34

Roger Ebert
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/REVIEWS/593221592

Kurt Loder
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1592689/20080813/story.jhtml?rsspartner=rssYahooNewscrawler

Cinecon
http://www.cinecon.com/review.php?id=tropic-thunder