Tropic Thunder

Description

When the box office champ Ben Stiller's comedic performances aren't a variation on a soft-spoken, put-upon everyman with an eventual fuse, he's usually playing a full-blown absurdist monster with an apoplectic Napoleon complex. These bizarre creations usually adorn films in which the funnyman provides the supporting work (DODGEBALL, HEAVYWEIGHTS), but, whenever he's directing, he's free to build an entire filmic universe around his asinine, ludicrously funny, culture-skewering characters and premises. His ZOOLANDER (2001) bit at the entertainment industry with silly abandon, but Stiller has firmly set TROPIC THUNDER within the realm of sophisticated Hollywood satire. In it, a desperate director named Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) trying to make a Vietnam war movie drops his pampered actors into the heart of the jungle. Cockburn's stars include Stiller as an action hero who's starting to make bad career choices, Jack Black as an insecure low-brow comedy star going through heroin withdrawals, and Robert Downey Jr. As an Australian Oscar winner so lost in his "craft" he underwent a procedure to become black for his role. In the jungle, they remain under the delusion that they are still being filmed even after they encounter a dangerous gang of druglords. The film's basic premise has popped up several times since Hollywood's 1970s golden age in films such as THREE AMIGOS! And GALAXY QUEST. Where those films simply blanketed a classic Overconfident Bumbling Idiot comedy showcase with a pop culture lexicon, however, TROPIC THUNDER could have only been made, as on-the-nose at is, by people who have been working in the Hollywood system for years, making cutting observations along the way. Simply put, this raucous satire knows big-budget filmmaking, the delusional narcissism of actors, and even the good points of those actors-perhaps why they're celebrated-like the back of it's hand. Review: Tropic Thunder (Blu-ray) - Movie - 4.5 When I first saw this in theaters, I thought it was funny. Not hilarious, but funny. However, the beauty of having a copy to watch at your own leisure makes for a much more comfortable and self-paced approach, which in the end did wonders for this comedic gem. I've always liked Ben Stiller. To me, he's a somewhat more refined version of Will Ferrell and uses a bit more "satire-goofy" style as opposed to "juvenile-goofy." In Tropic Thunder, we see a hilarious self-parody of actors acting as actors who are also.. acting. No, it's not as whimsical or intellectually jabbing as a Coen Brothers or Larry David project, but the degree of absurdity is still every entertaining to watch if you find just the right balance between all these quirky characters. Stiller does his usual thing with the insecure, thick-brained fellow just trying to find himself, while Jack Black makes for a very convincing heroin addict going off and on his highs and withdrawls. But the two performances I enjoyed the most were Robert Downey Jr.'s Kirk Lazarus and Tom Cruise's Les Grossman. Downey Jr. continues to amaze me with his various performances, and this after making Iron Man of all things. And as crazy as Cruise is off camera, I've liked him as an actor for most of his career, and he does a splendid job playing the fat, hairy, hyperactive, money-grubbing, Diet Coke-ing businessman. The story is silly, yet addicting, and the dialogue is full of great one-liners you can recite to yourself or around friends. Watch it for what it's worth and enjoy. Video - 4.5 Being a sort of comedic-action movie, I was actually surprised at how great the video looked. Cinematography in particular shoots many a beautiful landscape, expressing lots of lush greens during daytime scenes, accompanied by great levels of detail and depth upon action sequences (especially on the foreground). Some of the indoor shots and night time scenes were a bit grainy, and I think the colors were just a tad softer on a few scenes that involved closeups of the actors, detracting this from a perfect rating. But given that this is more so a comedy film than action, it's definitely a well-efforted transfer by the people at Dreamworks. Audio - 4.5 While presented with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, keep in mind that this a comedic-action movie (more emphasis on the "comedic" part), so it's important to remember how this can effect a movie's sound design. Thankfully, though, it doesn't make much of a difference at all, and they did a great job anyway. Music and helicopter effects in the opening sequence are reference quality, in my opinion. Dialogue throughout the entire film is easy to hear and understand (yes, even Downey Jr's ebonics), but I do wish they had given gunshots and explosions a little more oomph. Overall directionality is quite immersive placing every sound where you think it'd be coming from. But again, some of the action sounds were a bit more underwhelming than I wanted. If you're friends can't tell the difference, though, tell them it's reference and see how they react. Extras - 4.5 While not high in quantity (perhaps an additional 25GB disc would've helped?), the special features presented are pretty fun in their own right with commentaries, "making of" featurettes, and deleted/extended scenes. I had no idea this film was 10 years in the making until they said it, but I would have to say the dividends really paid off after all this time. I also liked the Les Grossman dance test and found it hilarious to a see a half-costumed Tom Cruise booty dancing to no music. It's a fairly good amount of quality extras for just a single 50GB disc and gives you a bit of insight from all the cast and crew and should be watched at least one time through. Overall - 4.5 It's not a perfect movie with perfect technical specifications, but it's close. To this date, it is by far the funniest of Stiller's movies that I've seen, and it's full of laughs all over the place. If you like quirky characters and an equally absurd storyline to suit them, then definitely give this a watch, if not at least for the faux movie trailers at the beginning. Review: Hilarious - It was interesting watching this with my 17 year old. He thought it was hilarious and understood the satire but was still surprised they managed to actually make this movie lol