Tropic Thunder [Blu-ray]

Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black lead an all-star cast in a movie about making a movie. Tropic Thunder starts off with movie previews giving us a look at the personalities we are about to see filming the story of Vietnam Veteran, John "Four Leaf" Tayback's (Nick Nolte). After the previews, which are sadly some of the funniest scenes in the movie, we are thrown right into the action of what you believe is the movie until the director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan), pulls back and we see how the filming is going and the problems that are associated. When the studio learns how over budget they are, there is a threat of shutting it down but, the director refuses to go along with the shut down and takes his lead actors into the jungle and tells the stars he is going to film all of the action guerilla-style with hidden cameras. However, he mistakenly leads the cast into a jungle controlled by a drug lord. Instantly, we learn that things have gone awfully awry.

Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) tries to take command and be the leader, but the other actors don't see things his way. Jeff "Fats" Portnoy (Jack Black), Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) round out this disgruntled team of actors who now need to come together and figure out how to stay alive and make it out safely.

The story touches on some material that is not politically correct and may be found offensive. Case in point, the word "retard" is thrown around freely. While it may be offensive, it is some of the funniest material of the movie. There is a scene about forty five minutes in where you will want to have the remote in your hand as soon as Robert Downey Jr. starts talking to Ben Stiller about "going full retard." You will want to be ready to go back and watch it again. I found that as soon as the scene was over, I had to go back and see if they really said what I just thought I heard them say. After realizing I heard correctly, I had to go back a third time because it was quite funny especially since Robert Downey Jr. is speaking to Ben Stiller as a an Australian Academy Award winning actor playing a black actor. This proves to be some of the funniest content of the movie. One other interesting scene, since I am writing up a review about the Blu-ray version, is that Jay Baruchel's character explains about the Blu-ray vs. HD war and how things worked out on that subject.

The Blu-ray version has plenty of bonus material including two commentary tracks, one track by the filmmakers, and one by the cast. The video rehearsals and Tom Cruise's make-up test are really interesting and fun to watch. As usual, the Blu-ray picture is solid and the definition that is noticeable in the jungle scenes as well as the explosions really come off beautifully.

Bonus Features:

• * Filmmaker commentary with Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Stuart Cornfeld, Jaff Mann, John Toll and Greg Hayden
• * Cast commentary with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr.
• * (HD) Before the Thunder featurette
• * (HD) The Hot LZ featurette
• * (HD) Blowing S&*T Up featurette
• * (HD) Designing the Thunder featurette
• * (HD) The cast of Tropic Thunder:
  1. Stiller
  2. Black
  3. Downey Jr.
  4. Jackson
  5. Baruchel
  6. McBride
  7. Nolte
• * (HD) Rain of madness feature
• * (HD) 2 Deleted scenes, 2 Extended scenes, Alternate ending -- all with optional intro / commentary
• * (HD) MTV Movie Awards -- Tropic Thunder
• * (HD) Full Mags:
  1. Cody at Bar
  2. Portnoy tied to Tree
  3. Choose a Dude
  4. Laz at campfire
• * (HD) Tom Cruise makeup test -- with optional intro by Ben Stiller and Greg Hayden
• * BD-Live access: (Not currently enabled)
  1. Dispatches from the edge of madness
  2. Video rehearsals
  3. Additional Full Mags

While Tropic Thunder has its moments of being funny, like watching Tom Cruise play studio executive Les Grossman, but the true glue that held this film together is Robert Downey Jr. He is amazing to watch in this role as his delivery is spot on and does an excellent job portraying a black man. If you offend easily, you may want to pass on this one but, there is plenty of bonus material to go along with the film that really helps save a film that had a good start but falls flat at times. If you are on the fence about the story and material, rest assured that you won't be disappointed when Robert Downey Jr. hits the screen.