InsPirEd LunAcY

This is the kind of film where you either get it or you don't - you either are open to the maniacal absurdity of the proceedings or you're not, in which case I recommend you slink home and watch the director's cut of "Atonement" instead. For those who are on board, this movie will render you obscenely giddy during more than most of its running time, perhaps even levitating above your seat but you'll be laughing too effin' hard to actually notice that.

Ben Stiller and his co-writers manage to pull off the near-impossible here. The premise of the film is great, the movie-within-a-movie, but in the wrong hands, or rather in less inspired, less hell-bent-for-leather hands, the execution could have easily been its downfall. But Stiller & Co. are crazed enough, willing enough, and most importantly, savvy enough, to make it work from beginning to end.

Take the performances: everyone rocks his role, with the obvious standouts being Downey Jr as 'the dude playin' the dude disguised as another dude' (he doesn't break character, he brags at one point, until he's done the DVD commentary ~ you gotta admire that kinda commitment, mate); Tom Cruise, barely recognizable and absolutely hilarious as the corrupt studio clown (Cruise chose to play the part bald and paunchy, looking like a cartoon version of Jeffrey Tambor - you know, the 'hey now' guy from "Larry Sanders") and Nick Nolte, who just has to be on camera to illicit giddy laughs, and when he speaks, fuggedaboudit. Plus Stiller himself scores major big time here, especially when he's captured by the Viet Cong (led by Tran, played by teenager Brandon Soo Hoo, who is a riot) and forced to act out in its entirety his flop of a film, "Simple Jack" over and over again for their demented pleasure.

Can't wait to see what he comes up with next, the Stillernator, but for the time being it suffices to say that he has most definitely redeemed himself for the two overstuffed turkeys that were "A Night at the Museum" and the "Heartbreak Kid" remake. It'll do for now.