i’m counting the days till i can watch Tropic Thunder and the biggest reason for this breathless anticipation is robert downey’s droll protrayal of Kirk Lazarus, an Aussie actor who goes through a skin color-changing procedure so he can play a black dude in “Tropic Thunder” — a movie-within-a-movie storyline that could easily pall on the viewer if it weren’t so funny.

Tropic Thunder tells the story of a cast of self-absorbed actors who have signed up to star in a war movie for various reasons (mostly to prop up their career), and their hapless, irate director who finally decides to continue filming in Southeast Asia to inject a sense of realism into the story. the only problem was, the cast stumbled into the lair of bad guys who mistook them for the real thing.

aside from robert downey, Tropic Thunder also stars ben stiller (who happens to direct this movie), funny guy jack black and brendan jackson. rounding off this improbable mix of cool stars and incongruously funny plot is an array of incredible cameos from nick nolte (as the vietnam vet/author), matthew mcconaughey (as the talent agent) and tom cruise (as the balding and expletive-spewing Hollywood exec).

Kung Fu Panda is generating some favorable early buzz courtesy of some early good reviews and its splashy appearance in the Cannes Film Festival in France. the star-studded hype is spearheaded by the golden couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who incidentally provides the voice for one of the main characters in this animated flick.

naturally, Jack Black, who plays the title role, gets the chance to show off his patented goofy antics while in cannes. he is joined by the heavily pregnant ms. jolie and dustin hoffman.

the cast includes dustin hoffman (ku fu master) angelina jolie (tigress), lucy liu (viper), and jackie chan (mantis).

Kung Fu Panda is expected to hit the theaters on june 6, 2008.