Rating:

Not since The Player have I enjoyed a spoof on Hollywood conventions as much as I did with Tropic Thunder. From the first preview, I thought the concept looked great and the cast was impossibly good, but spoof movies rarely work. Add to that, the last directorial effort by Ben Stiller was Zoolander and you can see the skepticism that many had was well founded.

How great it is to be proven wrong.

Stiller stars in the film as Tugg Speedman. He’s the action star that’s a little past his prime and is trying to find one more hit to get him back in the game. I can’t place any one character he’s supposed to be a parody of like his co-stars in the film.

Rounding up the main cast are Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black. Downey Jr. is Kirk Lazarus. A method actor so intense, he has his skin color altered for this film. I can’t help but think he’s supposed to be similar to Russell Crowe. Along those same lines, Jack Black’s character Jack Portnoy seems to be a dig at Eddie Murphy. His character’s last name (Portnoy) seems to hint at the “fat guy” genre that deceased actor Chris Farley parlayed into fame.

That’s about as deep as the film gets. The plot is quickly set as the cast and crew get involved with a heroin cartel in the jungles of Viet Nam. Mistaking the locals for actors, the cast and minimal crew find themselves caught in a real battle as they attempt to film their fake one. The film manages to be funny on many levels and succeeds not only on the actors, but the story as well.

The first disc features two commentaries. The first is by Stiller and writer Justin Theroux, production designer Jeff Mann, producer Stuart Cornfeld, editor Greg Hayden and cinematographer John Toll. Despite the large group, it’s not the most interesting of commentaries.

The better commentary features Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. (in character as Kirk Lazarus). This one is fun and entertaining, mostly due to Black. Downey Jr. is reserved in-character and I wish he was himself, due to the chemistry the trio obviously have.

Disc Two is loaded behind-the-scenes features. From beginning, to filming to end, nearly every aspect is touched on in: Before the Thunder, The Hot LZ, Blowing S#%t Up, Designing the Thunder, and The Cast of Tropic Thunder. There’s a faux documentary entitled Rain of Madness that mimics the Apocalypse Now! documentary Hearts of Darkness. The other feature Dispatches from the Edge of Madness is similar in tone to the Rain of Madness feature.

Rounding out the second disc are Deleted and Extended Scenes, an Alternate Ending, Video Rehearsals and MTV Video Awards skits. The latter is extremely funny and it features Downey Jr. beating Jack Black up in various ways in order to create a viral video—it also feature a great Iron Man joke.

Overall, Tropic Thunder is easily one of the funniest movies I’ve watched all year. The cast is spot-on perfect and the inside jokes toward Hollywood only make the film that much better.