From the moment the fake trailers started playing to introduce the characters from their previous (fictitious) movies, our audience was laughing and there were only a couple of lulls during the 105-or-so minutes. The three main actors (Stiller, Black, Downey Jr) all get big laughs throughout the movie. The best part of the funniest scenes is that they aren't based on gags, one-liners, or pop culture references. The laughs come from the actors being funny as the characters they are playing…the scenes are funny, the dialogue is funny, and the performances are strong enough that some of the biggest laughs are from the vocal nuances and facial expressions.

Every actor turned in a solid effort here, but Robert Downey Jr. was the highlight for me. He had some of the best lines and the way he played a white man acting as a black man was genius. The trailers don't do his character justice – he's really just that good here. One of the best scenes happens when Downey is talker to Stiller about who gets rewarded at the Oscars and why – it had our audience cheering.

I'm not a fan of some past Stiller characters (Zoolander, Starsky/Hutch) because, for me at least, it felt like he expected the audience to laugh without really giving them a reason to. This time, he gives you plenty of reasons. He's funny, energetic and is actually giving depth and life to his fictional character. His character goes on a personal journey in the film, the climax of which is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.