Offbeat 'Thunder' packs explosive laughs

"Tropic Thunder" (unrated director's cut) - Ben Stiller directed and stars in this uneven but entertaining satire about three pampered actors who get more than their agents negotiated for during the production of an "Apocalypse Now"-style war film.

Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. play the stars of the big-budget film based on the memoirs of a Vietnam veteran. Fed up with his actors' obnoxious and egotistical behavior, the director drops them deep in the jungle to improvise scenes in front of hidden cameras. Bullets fly and hilarity ensues when Stiller, Black and Downey encounter what they think are actors playing the Viet Cong, but in reality are members of an all-too-real drug cartel.

Stiller uses this high-concept plot to take jabs at the movie business and indulge his taste for strange and surprisingly dark humor. Consider Stiller's character; he's a fading action-movie star who tried to gain respectability with a hideous portrayal of a mentally disabled boy in a movie called "Simple Jack." Downey, meanwhile, plays a multiple Oscar winner so devoted to his craft that he dyes his skin to play a black soldier in the war film.

Not everything works in "Tropic Thunder"; the middle act drags and Black's character is more annoying than funny. But Stiller and Downey are both superb, and Tom Cruise almost steals the film with an over-the-top and hilarious performance as an abusive Hollywood producer. Stiller's third directorial effort isn't perfect, but it shows he has the chops to be an offbeat voice in film comedy. I wish he would direct more films instead of appearing in dreck like "A Night at the Museum."

The two-disc director's cut DVD includes a new version of the film that's about 14 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, two commentaries and a wealth of behind-the-scenes material. (NR, but for older teens and adults; Paramount, $24.99)

"Kung Fu Panda" - "Kung Fu Panda" opens with a sequence filmed in traditional "2-D" animation that looks so dreamlike and cool that the switch to cold 3-D computer animation bummed me out. I know it makes me sound old, but computer animation just doesn't thrill me the way the traditional stuff does, and I think it's a shame that the movie studios appear to have given up on it.

That rant aside, "Panda" is a breezy, likable romp that should keep younger viewers entertained, even if the story is a patchwork of animated-film clichés. Jack Black heads an A-list voice cast as Po, a clumsy, portly panda who gets the chance to realize his dream of becoming a kung fu master. Dustin Hoffman and Ian McShane provide solid supporting voice work, and the fight scenes are well staged and animated. I'm glad that the story abandons the juvenile bathroom humor that marred the "Shrek" films, but I wish the writers could have built it around a theme a bit fresher than "believe in yourself." The DVD comes with some nice extras, and it's available in a two-pack with a straight-to-DVD companion film, "Secrets of the Furious Five." (PG; Paramount, $29.99 for "Panda" alone, $34.98 for the two-pack)