Although Ben Stiller has had something of a hit-and-miss career, he’s managed to stay involved in every aspect of film production – from acting and writing to producing and directing. He’s sort of become a modern-day comedic version of Orson Welles in that he takes on high-profile acting jobs (Night at the Museum, Meet the Parents) to help green-light and fund his own personal projects (Zoolander, Starsky and Hutch). While I tend to think his acting range and talents are a bit limited, he sometimes hits one out of the park when collaborating with the right group of filmmakers; the Farrelly brothers in There’s Something About Mary is a perfect example. But to me his own directorial projects have yielded mixed results; from the overhyped and derivative Reality Bites to the sadly underappreciated The Cable Guy, Stiller as a director is only as good as his stars and material will dictate. The one oddball entry in his canon, the endlessly goofy Zoolander, seemed to defy expectations and cement itself as something of a cult favorite.

Stiller’s latest effort, Tropic Thunder, seemed like an ideal project for his sensibilities. The combined thrill of being able to spoof and satire sacrosanct war films like Apocalypse Now and Platoon, while putting a dark comedic spin on such well-worn and heretofore untapped material, was right up Stiller’s alley. After all, he sort of cut his teeth on blatant spoofs of other movies during his short-lived TV series, The Ben Stiller Show, and his send-up of Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money remains legendary. The other major selling point for Thunder is, of course, the impeccable casting of co-stars like Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. to play alongside Stiller in the film’s key roles. Stiller couldn’t have picked better cohorts to play off his dour and somber performance. The added value of people like Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan and, in a wonderfully self- effacing extended cameo, Tom Cruise, made the movie that much more intriguing. Yet, the final results left me wanting a bit more. It certainly has its moments, but like Stiller’s own career, it’s ultimately a mixed bag of hits and misses.

Taking its basic premise from the madness and confusion surrounding Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary Apocalypse Now shoot, Tropic Thunder also attempts to skewer the various echelons of contemporary movie stars. To wit, we get the brainless brawn of action hero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), the silly comedic antics of Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and the serious method acting of Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.). Also thrown in for good measure is a rap- star-turned-actor named Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and a novice thespian named Jay Baruchel (Kevin Sandusky), although those two characters become about as important as their relative star power – which is to say, not much. To that end, the movie cleverly introduces each of the would-be “stars” through a commercial and series of trailers that precede the film proper. Alpa Chino is seen hawking his Booty Sweat energy drink and Bust-a-Nut candy bar; we get a trailer for Tugg Speedman’s latest franchise entry, Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown; a trailer for Jeff “Fatty” Portnoy’s The Fatties: Fart 2 in which he plays all the roles ala Eddie Murphy; and, finally a trailer for Satan’s Alley, starring five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus as a monk with a forbidden attraction to a fellow monk, played by none other than Tobey Maguire in another of the film’s great cameos.

The conceit here is clever enough: these disparate talents have all been cast in a big budget, high profile Vietnam War movie based on a book by real-life veteran John “Four Leaf” Tayback (Nick Nolte), who’s also involved with the film as a consultant. The three major leads all hope this will help them break out of their typecast roles and maybe win their first coveted Oscar (or in Lazarus’ case, another Oscar). Speedman, in particular, has a lot to prove in the aftermath of his previous attempt at gaining some acting credibility – an abysmal flop titled Simple Jack in which he played the title role of a retarded farmhand. But his agent, Rick “Pecker” Peck (Matthew McConaughey) has assured him that Tropic Thunder will be his big comeback. Speedman and Lazarus both attempt to steal the movie’s thunder (pun intended) with their over-the-top performances. Lazarus, a white Australian actor, has even had his skin pigmented to play the role of African-American Sergeant Osiris. Meanwhile, the film’s producer, Les Grossman (a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise), berates director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) for being behind schedule and over-budget. Writer and consultant Tayback suggests that Cockburn actually drop the pampered actors into the real jungle and shoot the movie like a reality show – thereby adding a much-needed level of realism. With a series of cameras throughout the jungle capturing their every move, the actors are given a map and scene list to follow and are let loose in the wild.

When Cockburn steps on an old landmine and blows himself to bits, the actors all think it’s part of the plan. The group also remains oblivious to the fact that they’ve been dropped in the middle of a clandestine heroin operation run by a local gang of drug runners who think the newly-arrived unit in military fatigues was actually sent by the Drug Enforcement Agency. When they open fire to scare them off, the actors assume it’s part of the guerilla-filmmaking technique and fire back, setting off some planted special-effects explosives in the process. Speedman takes charge, much to Lazarus’ chagrin, and begins leading the rag-tag group consisting of himself, Lazarus, Portnoy, Chino, and Baruchel through the jungle, hamming it up for the phantom cameras. But he soon misreads the map and the group gets hopelessly lost. When Lazarus reveals that Speedman has been leading them in the wrong direction the whole time, the rest of the group breaks off from Speedman and begins heading back to their appointed pickup point. Meanwhile, Tayback has arrived in the area along with special-effects expert Cody (Danny McBride) looking for Cockburn. While searching for the now-deceased director, the duo is kidnapped by the drug lords and whisked away to a nearby village.

Alone and lost in the jungle, Speedman begins to panic and then starts delving deeper into his character, acting out scenes and reciting lines to himself. His paranoia starts to parallel the journey into madness that Kurtz takes in Apocalypse Now and in one desperate scene he kills a giant panda and skins the bear to wear its pelt. It’s not long after that his wild rants and raves draw the attention of the drug runners and they take him prisoner. As the drug lords torment and torture Speedman, hoping to find out why the “DEA” sent him there, the actor lapses into the unintentional stutter of “Simple Jack,” which all the drug runners immediately recognize – especially their young leader. It turns out that Simple Jack is one of the few movies they’ve seen and they are all in awe of the star in their midst. Speedman is then asked to do a live rendition of the entire movie for the camp. Meanwhile, the other four actors have stumbled across the drug encampment and see Speedman getting tortured by the group when he’s first captured. Assuming this has all been staged for the movie, the group prepares a rescue attempt based on an ambush in the script. Lazarus impersonates a local farmer who has caught Portnoy trespassing on his land to distract the drug runners while Chino and Baruchel attempt to rescue Speedman. In the process they also discover Tayback and Cody held hostage, who they untie to help with the rescue effort.

The film’s third act plays out like a surreal example of life imitating art… or maybe, in this case, art imitating life. Standouts include Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise, in a wonderfully nutty cameo turn. Frustratingly, the usually goofy and amusing Jack Black isn’t given a lot of screen time and the remaining “non-star” members of the five-man troop are given even less to do. Stiller insists on keeping a bit too much focus on his own Tugg Speedman who, in the end, isn’t nearly as interesting or compelling as the rest of his platoon.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s original 2.35:1 aspect ratio is presented in a very good high-definition transfer compressed with the AVC video CODEC. The image quality is detailed, sharp, and colorful, although not as vibrant as some other titles given the film’s limited palette and the fact that the majority of it takes place within the confines of a jungle. That being said, color balance is very good and there’s an ample amount of earthy browns, lush greens, and bursts of yellow-orange as the film’s frequent pyrotechnics explode onscreen. Black levels remain deep, dark, and inky and the impeccable source print reveals no signs of specks or blemishes. Flesh tones all looked natural and nicely rendered while compression artifacts were nowhere to be found. This is a very consistent film- like presentation that only falls a bit short in not providing that eye-popping three-dimensional look of a reference-quality disc or the wow-factor of a more vibrant color palette. Details such as the fabric texture and print design on the characters’ military fatigues and the even the small skull movie logo for Tropic Thunder on Cockburn’s t-shirt all look clean and well-defined. Overall, a very good video presentation.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The stellar English TrueHD 5.1 lossless track boasts an active and aggressive mix that keeps all six channels pumping with content throughout the duration of the movie. The discrete channels also have a distinctive separation, with great left/right directional effects through the front channels and equally- impressive ambient sounds coming from the rears. This is another great soundtrack that affirms my faith in TrueHD 5.1 as the high definition audio option of choice. With a loud and clear center-channel presence delivering all of the film’s rapid-fire dialogue, the front stereo channels and discrete surrounds are left to provide a wide spectrum of 360-degree sound including the frequent assault of gunfire, booming explosions, and buzzing helicopter engines. Not to be left out, the subwoofer also comes alive to provide a subtle bottom end to the soundstage. It even rumbles into overdrive when a battery of pyrotechnics goes off unexpectedly during a thunderstorm when Speedman is trapped out in the jungle, and even during the finale when machine-gunfire threatens to overwhelm the film’s score. Speaking of which, Theodore Shapiro’s original music also emanates from all six channels and frequently punctuates what’s happening onscreen. Len Grossman’s penchant for hip-hop music also kicks in with a driving force and deep bottom end, especially during his amusing dance over the film’s closing credits. Overall, a very impressive and active audio presentation.

The optional subtitles are in English, English SDH, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Dreamworks has pulled out all the stops in bringing Tropic Thunder to BD by including an ample collection of bonus material that takes longer to sort through than the two-hour feature film. First up are two feature-length running audio commentary tracks. The first is a Filmmaker Commentary with writer/director Ben Stiller, writer/producer Justin Theroux, producer Stuart Cornfeld, production designer Jeff Mann, cinematographer John Toll, and editor Greg Hayden. There’s also a Cast Commentary with the three amigos: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. As you might surmise, the first track is a lot more technical and provides a great deal of insight and information about the project from concept to completion. Stiller leads the show but everyone chimes in about their own contributions. The most interesting is Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll who shot Braveheart, The Thin Red Line, and even worked with Francis Ford Coppola on The Rainmaker. With six people to lend their comments, the track is seldom boring and never wanes for more than a second or two. For sheer entertainment value, however, the track with Stiller, Black and Downey Jr. is far and away the better choice. The three actors have an obvious and genuine affection for one another and they seem to have had a great time working on the movie. Downey Jr. spends the majority of the commentary in character as Kirk Lazarus and only reverts to himself near the very end. The trio notes they recorded their track on the day of the film’s premiere and they seem excited to see how it plays before an audience. Stiller amusingly makes fun of other commentary tracks by occasionally trailing off and just describing what’s happening onscreen (something he apparently hates himself) and then Black also starts referring to other commentary tracks he’s listened to recently.

The first of several featurettes, Before the Thunder (4:50, 1080p) explains the genesis of the project where Stiller reveals the idea goes all the way back to Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun in which he had a bit part. Around that same time in 1987, many of his fellow actors were auditioning for various Vietnam war films and going through rigorous training in “boot camp,” which triggered the idea for a war movie spoof.

The Hot LZ featurette (6:24, 1080p) refers to an elaborate special-effects sequence in the film and goes into the difficulty of recreating a lot of the wartime effects – most of which were done practically to mimic classic pre-CGI films like Apocalypse Now and Platoon.

Blowing S#%t Up featurette (6:17, 1080p) is pretty self- explanatory and it provides a little insight into Ben Stiller’s ideas for doing a lot of the over-the-top explosive effects for the movie.

Designing the Thunder featurette (7:30, 1080p) offers a behind-the-scenes look into the shoot that took place in Hawaii. Producer Stuart Cornfeld noted that since this was a movie about the making of a movie, they often could simply turn the cameras on their own sets and crew and use them as characters in the film.

The Cast of Tropic Thunder featurette (22:03 aggregate, 1080p) provides a brief video overview of each cast member including Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Nick Nolte. Each actor also comments on the other actors and their respective roles.

My favorite bonus feature on this BD, the short mockumentary Rain of Madness (29:58, 1080p), is an obvious satire of the feature-length Hearts of Darkness about the making of Apocalypse Now and is similar to the resultant film-within-the-film that wins all the Oscars. Initially released online to promote the theatrical release of Tropic Thunder, the short is actually far more amusing and biting than much of the film itself. Featuring a documentary filmmaker named Jan Jurgen who’s obviously modeled on Werner Herzog, it takes no prisoners in skewering the Hollywood studio system and how such big-budget productions can go horribly awry. Best described as Hearts of Darkness meets This is Spinal Tap, Rain of Madness in many ways is better than the two- hour feature film, which often meanders.

Dispatches from the Edge of Madness (22:56 aggregate, 1080p) is a collection of deleted scenes and outtakes from the aforementioned mockumentary Rain of Madness, some of which were also used as online promotional shorts for the movie.

Next up is a series of deleted scenes, extended sequences, and an alternate ending (20:15 aggregate, 1080p), with a short introduction by writer/director Ben Stiller and editor Greg Hayden. They include Water Buffalo Wrestling, Speedman Unpacking His Backpack, Snorkels, Eight Minutes in Hell, and Alternate Ending. None of these amount to much and they certainly aren’t missed save for the alternate ending, which adds an amusing coda to the film’s Oscar wins and also reveals the fate of Speedman’s dutiful agent, Rick “Pecker” Peck.

There’s a Make-Up Test with Tom Cruise (1:40), again with an introduction from Ben Stiller and Greg Hayden; a segment from the MTV Movie Awards (4:06) with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. preparing to make a viral video to promote Tropic Thunder; and Full Mags (33:18 aggregate, 1080p), an interesting assortment of “full magazines” of film that average eight to nine minutes each showing how they would often let the cameras roll and then pick out shots and takes from the resulting raw footage.

There are samples of video rehearsals (3:02) that were taped both to test camera angles and lens options and for Stiller to watch the performances and make suggestions. These are presented with footage of the same scene from the final film as an insert at the bottom of the screen.

The disc includes trailers for The Soloist, Eagle Eye, Van Wilder: Freshman Year, and Ghost Town, and also offers downloadable content for players that are BD Live enabled.

The 120-minute film is divided into twenty-four chapters.

Final Thoughts

Although compelling and often amusing, Tropic Thunder tends to suffer a bit from its own prerelease hype and critical response. It’s one of those movies you wish you had discovered yourself so you could go into it with little to no expectations. While it’s worth seeing for great turns from Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise, other talents like Jack Black, Nick Nolte, and Steve Coogan take a backseat to Ben Stiller’s overemphasis on his own character. With stellar video and audio presentations and an overabundance of interesting and entertaining bonus material, this BD is highly recommended.