Tropic Thunder DVD Review

Tropic Thunder

DVD Review
DreamWorks Home Entertainment
Released: November 18, 2008

Tropic Thunder, a film in the running as one of the best movies of the year in my opinion, has finally hit the DVD format.

The film, which stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. shows the actors being dropped into the middle of a warzone.

These actors were all working on a movie together, but are finding themselves to be having a bit of an issue in regards to their egos and how everything is meshing together.  The film, which was going to be based off of a novel of the same name, is pushed to move forward despite the fact that it is over-budget.

This ends up with the actors being thrown into a warzone in Vietnam where the action becomes real instead of make believe.

The cast helps push Tropic Thunder along as they do a fantastic job of taking every single bit of quality material that is here, and exploiting it to make it as entertaining as they possibly can.

Not only is the comedy extremely-well done, there is also plenty of action and gore here which fans of action movies will likely appreciate.

The whole way the film executes itself will have you laughing your tail off from start to finish.  Tropic Thunder is easily one of the most original and well-made movies of the year, hands down.

The video quality on DVD is flawless as there is virtually nothing to complain about.  The fleshtones come across very natural, black levels are solid, and the contrast is about as good as you can get, great stuff!

The audio mix is very impact-full as it really helps push home the fact that this is not only a comedy, but also a film that has a lot of action involved in it as well.

The action sequences have tones of power behind them with some great use of the subwoofer as well as rear channels.  Fantastic stuff!

The DVD release starts off with a commentary track featuring Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Stuart Cornfeld, Jeff Man, John Toll, as well as Greg Hayden.

The track is better suited for those who want to get into more of the technical aspect of the film and how it was made and such.  This is highly-entertaining.

There is another commentary track from the actors Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. which is hilarious though.

The first featurette tacked on is called Before the Thunder, and looks at how the film was made, what its origins are, etc.  The Hot LZ is up next and looks at the opening action sequence of the film.

From here, you are introduced to a track known as Blowing S#it Up, which looks at how the explosions are put together, a very fun thing to watch for any movie fan.

The next feature is known as Designing the Thunder, and looks at the films sets, while the feature following that takes a very close look at the cast and how they all came together.

My favorite feature is called Rain of Madness, and is a 30-minute documentary which looks at the film that Tropic Thunder portrays, and is downright hilarious to check out.

Beyond that, you also get deleted scenes, extended scenes, an alternate ending, as well as a couple of other nice little extras.

Tropic Thunder is fantastic on the DVD format with tons of quality extras, a great audio/video transfer, etc.  This is the total package on DVD and is a must-buy!

Film: 9.4 Hilarious, one of the most entertaining and original films of the year!

Video: 10 Can’t get much better on DVD!

Audio: 10 A very aggressive track, tons of impact!

Extras: 9.0 A great set of highly-entertaining extras.

Final Score: 9.5

Do you have a product that you would like featured on dBTechno? If so, drop us a line at vicb@dbtechno.com