One of the most raucously hilarious comedies of the year stands tall on DVD with the Tropic Thunder: 2-Disc Unrated Director’s Cut. Loaded with features that provide insight and entertainment, this is one DVD set that is well worth the purchase price.
Tropic Thunder comes off like a sort of Hearts of Darkness riff. Built around the idea of dense actors set to make the ultimate Vietnam War movie, Ben Stiller’s movie is a barbed look at the “Hollywoodizing” of war. Everything in the film industry is given a look under Stiller’s unremitting eye, from narcissistic and oblivious actors to preposterous trailers and product placements. Nothing is sacred and nothing is safe.
Stiller stars as flagging action hero Tugg Speedman, the highest-grossing action star on the planet. His status is deteriorating, however, and his last several movies have bombed. Tugg is one of several actors enlisted by director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan in an uproarious turn) to create the definitive war movie. Along with Speedman, rap star Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), drug-addicted comic Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), character actor Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) are dispatched to make the film.
Cockburn is having a hell of a time controlling the egos of his actors, unfortunately, and the movie is way over budget and way behind schedule. This prompts studio exec Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) to push the director to get his shit together and get things back on schedule. With a plan in motion to get some “real emotion” out of the actors, Cockburn teams with the author of the book the film is based on, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) to drop the guys in the middle of nowhere and shoot the results. Soon, however, the ignorant actors find themselves facing off against a real adversary.
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