Tropic Thunder DVD: Review By Kenneth Albert

When one thinks about Vietnam its safe to say that one of the first thoughts to come up is the location of one of the bloodiest wars in the history of mankind. It’s been the subject of many motion pictures such as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket; each portraying accurate accounts of the living Hell soldiers had to endure, but leave it to Ben Stiller to be the mastermind behind an action comedy set in Vietnam. With the help of a great supporting cast he delivers Tropic Thunder his first directorial film since Zoolander, which is sure to have people screaming with laughter due to the chaos that ensues.

Action superstar Tugg Speedman (Stiller) is in the middle of filming his latest film Tropic Thunder, an adaptation of a book by Vietnam veteran Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte). Also starring alongside Speedman is comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.). But when the production of the film comes to a standstill because the three can’t get their priorities in order, director Damien C*ckburn (Steve Coogan) and Tayback try to save the film by taking the cast off the movie set and throwing them into the harsh jungles of Vietnam cleverly hiding the fact that it’s not a movie anymore, it’s real. The diluted cast soon find themselves in the fight for their lives as they try to survive the jungle and each other resulting in many hilarious and sometimes gory scenarios.

The cast is what makes the film a fun journey through the jungle. Stillar, Black and Coogan are at their usual best so if you like them you won’t be disappointed there. Jay Baruchel, Brandon Jackson and Danny McBride who also stuck in the jungle give solid performances and provide some additional laughs but the film’s backbone is definitely Downey Jr. He’s a fantastic actor with lots of talent, whom else better to portray a white actor who literally becomes an African American mentally and physically for his role and keeps things very interesting as he lives the persona for the majority of the film.

The main cast is fully loaded with an abundance of acting talent but sometimes the best performances comes from someone who has very little screen time. In this case it belongs to two people, Matthew McConaughey and Mr. Scientology himself Tom Cruise, whose cameos steal the show with McConaughey playing Speedman’s TiVo obsessed agent and Cruise (who sports a body a suit) as an out of control movie executive with a short fuse. Together the two help to bring the film to a high level of comedic greatness.

Even with the plot being totally farfetched it’s hard not to have a good time watching Tropic Thunder. It’s what can be referred to as a “Smart dumb comedy”, dumb yet brilliantly executed, which has served Stiller pretty well thus far as a director. Just make sure when you go to theaters to get their early to don’t miss out on the outrageous fake movie trailers, they help to set the tone for the film.