Tropic Thunder, DVD Review

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So far this year on DVD it’s been a pretty good year as far as comedies go. I’ve been lucky enough to review a couple of crackers in Pineapple Express and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Having said that though, it was Tropic Thunder that I was looking forward to the most.

Tropic thunder, written by Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux, is a film about making a film. I can see that writing about it is going to get a bit confusing as there are actors (Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. etc.) that are playing characters (Tugg Speedman, Jeff Portnoy, Kirk Lazarus etc.) that are actors themselves that are then playing characters in the film they’re supposed to be making (also called Tropic Thunder to make things even more confusing). What makes it even more confusing is that Ben Stiller is the real director of the film, but then Steve Coogan plays Damien Cockburn who is the Director of the film they’re making in the film!!! If you’re still with me you’re either a total genius or completely befuddled!

So the film we see is about the making of another film called Tropic Thunder. It’s a send up of all the Vietnam films that were made in the 80s (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket etc.). It follows a bunch of actors trying to make a film adaptation of a book written by Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), a real Vietnam hero. It seems they’ve just started filming, but are already behind and over budget. The prima donna actors, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) the action hero, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) the serious method actor and Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) the comedy actor, aren’t getting on well and are jeopardising the production.

An under pressure director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) takes drastic action at the advice of Four Leaf and drops the main group of five actors (other two are Alpa Chino, a rapper come actor played by Brandon T. Jackson and Kevin Sandusky, the first timer played by Jay Baruchel) in the middle of the jungle that Damien has rigged with mini-cameras and leaves them to get on with it for real, away from their assistants, mobile phones and trailers. The only problem with this plan is that they’ve dropped the actors near a heroin factory and the surrounding hills are crawling with armed security with real guns. The actors don’t realise it’s for real and think they’re extras playing out ambush scenarios. By the time they realise that it’s real Tugg has been captured and they have to launch a real life rescue mission.

OK, so is this film as good as the trailers promised it to be, well actually yes, it is. As a comedy it’s consistently humorous throughout, with occasional moments that will make you laugh out loud. The actors were essentially sending themselves up and did a great job of it. Stiller is his usual self and anchors the film firmly in comedy territory, but Downey Jr. is the surprise comedy package playing Lazarus, a serious method actor that’s always in character and who for this film has had to undergo a pigmentation operation to play a black army sergeant. The interaction and tension between Speedman and Lazarus gives us some great moments and it’s a great acting performance from both of them. Jack Black drifts in and out of the picture, his character, Jeff Portnoy, doesn’t get a huge amount of screen time, but he does have a couple of scene stealing opportunities.

The cast in general was pretty stellar. In addition to those big names already mentioned we also get Matthew McConaughey as Tugg’s agent and Tom Cruise (yes that’s right, Tom Cruise!) as the studio owner Les Grossman. I’ve already mentioned the generally excellent acting in this film, but it has to be noted that the film stealer, in a very surprising comedy turn, is the aforementioned Tom Cruise. His depiction of Les Grossman has to be seen to be believed. There’s a now famous hip-hop dance about half way through the film and there’s an even better dance sequence at the end that you just have to watch.

The plot is pretty strong, I liked the concept of a piss take filming of a war movie and the beginning is pretty funny and the end sequence with the rescue of Tugg from the drug factory is also pretty funny. If I have any criticism it’s that while the actors wander through the jungle, the comedy and film itself also takes a bit of a wander. A couple of more comedy interactions with the locals wouldn’t have gone amiss, but instead they decided to concentrate on the relationship between Tugg and Lazarus.

The picture quality of this 2-disc DVD edition is top notch, the greens of the jungle look lush and the picture is packed with detail with a lack of digital artefacts. We get a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Usually I say for comedies that the soundtrack isn’t that important, but this being an action comedy, it is. The explosions carry good base and the surround speakers are well used, you’ll have helicopters buzzing your lounge and bullets zinging all over the place and throughout the dialogue through the centre channel stays strong.

With this being a 2-disc edition you’d expect a pretty strong extras line-up and you won’t be disappointed. Disc one has two commentaries, one from producers and crew and the other from the actors. If you want information listen to the crew commentary, if you want some humour then listen to the actors, nice to have the option of both though. Disc to extras include:

Before the Thunder – A five minute run through the development of the film from the writers and cast perspective. Some interesting behind the scenes footage, including some of the read rehearsal readthroughs.

The Hot LZ – Big sequence early on that mimics the end battle in Platoon. Behind the scenes look at how the sequence was shot in Hawaii, with cast interviews it’s actually pretty interesting, it goes into quite a lot of detail.

Blowing Shit Up – A great name for a featurette, how can you not watch this! Throughout the film there was prodigious use of explosives and here we see how they did it all.

Designing the Thunder – A feature detailing how they made a movie about making a movie and the building of the bigger sets in the film, all built from scratch on Hawaii. If you’re interested in the mechanics behind the production then this is well worth watching, contains some behind the scenes footage you don’t usually see.

The Cast of Tropic Thunder – A section for each of the major cast members to go through their characters with interviews with other cast members and behind the scenes footage. A lot of stuff here, some of it quite interesting, some a bit boring (it’s 22 minutes worth if you play them all).

Rain of Madness – Mickey take of a documentary film maker (Jan Jurgen) making a behind the scenes documentary of the Tropic Thunder film (the one the characters are meant to be making in the film). It’s a 30 minute feature and whilst it’s an interesting idea it’s not that funny.

Dispatches From the Edge of Madness – Again a mickey take with Jan Jurgen interviewing  the characters. Again quite long, but quite a bit funnier than the mock documentary. If you’re going to watch one then this is the better of the two.

Deleted Scenes/Extended Scenes/Alternate Ending – A couple of deleted scenes, nothing too interesting so easy to see why they were cut. With the extended sequences you can have audio commentary on or off which is nice ‘cause it’s explained why the sequence was cut in the final film. The alternate ending is well worth watching after you’ve seen the film, personally I think I preferred the alternate ending. Again you get the option of audio commentary to explain why they didn’t go with it.

This has to go down as one of the best comedies of 2008 and completes what has been a very strong comedy DVD release schedule for January 2009. I know there are people out there that don’t particularly like Ben Stiller comedies, the difference here is that this one isn’t as centred around him as much as the others. This is well worth seeing for the Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise performances alone. Rent or buy it but definitely watch it!