Director and co-writer Ben Stiller is also cast here as fading action-movie star Tugg Speedman, who hopes to kick-start his stalled career by appearing in a big-budget war movie with a handful of well-known costars: acclaimed dramatic actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), flatulent funnyman Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson). When the cast's egos start to present problems, frustrated first-time director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) takes a suggestion from writer Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte) and transports the actors to a real war zone for verisimilitude's sake, with the idea of shooting the big action scenes cinéma vérité-style. Unfortunately, they wind up in the middle of the Golden Triangle jungle region, controlled by a violent heroin-producing gang known as the Flaming Dragon. Captured by the drug lords, Tugg thinks that the Flaming Dragon soldiers are fellow actors and his imprisonment is part of the script. Tropic Thunder, which effectively lampoons movies such as Rambo and Missing in Action, was one of 2008's most entertaining summer films. Recommended. [Note: Available in either single disc or a “2-Disc Director's Cut”, DVD/Blu-ray extras on the double-disc “director's cut” edition include two audio commentaries (one with director/costar Ben Stiller, writer/producer Justin Theroux, producer Stuart Cornfield, production designer Jeff Mann, cinematographer John Toll, and editor Greg Hayden; the second with Stiller and costars Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.), 33 minutes of “Full Mags” extended outtakes, a half-hour “Rain of Madness” parody featurette, an additional 23 minutes worth of “Dispatches from the Edge of Madness” comic bits, “The Cast of Tropic Thunder” featurette (22 min.), deleted scenes, extended scenes, and an alternate ending (20 min. total), the production featurettes “Designing the Thunder” (8 min.), “The Hot LZ” on the opening scene (6 min.), “Blowing Shit Up” on pyrotechnics (6 min.), and “Before the Thunder” on the script (5 min.), a four-minute skit for the MTV Movie Awards, a makeup test with cameo star Tom Cruise (3 min.), three minutes of video rehearsals, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is BD Live functionality. Bottom line: an excellent extras package for one of summer 2008's best comedies.] (E. Hulse)
Tropic Thunder
Paramount, 107 min., R, DVD: $29.99, Blu-ray: $39.99, Nov. 18 Volume 23, Issue 5
Tropic Thunder
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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