It's not really a knock to say that nothing in Tropic Thunder is funnier than its first five minutes, so sly that--especially for people watching in theaters--you don't realize right away they are the opening minutes of the movie. This outrageous comedy begins with a series of fake previews, each introducing one of the main characters in the film-proper (not that there's anything proper about this film) and each bearing the familiar logo of a different motion picture studio: Universal, DreamWorks SKG, et al. Such playing fast and loose with corporate talismans verges on sacrilege, but it's an index of how much le tout Tinseltown endorses the movie as a demented valentine to itself. The premise is that the cast of a would-be "Son of Rambo" movie shooting in some Southeast Asian jungle get into a real shooting war with drug-smuggling montagnards. Don't ask--though the movie does have an answer--why such highly paid, usually ultra-pampered personnel as superhero Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Mozart of fart comedy Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), hip-hop artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and five-time Oscar-winner Kirk Lazarus from Aus-try-leeah (Robert Downey Jr.) should be running through the jungle unattended and very vulnerable. It matters only that the real-life cast has a high time kidding their own profession and flexing their comedic muscles. Bonus points go to Stiller for co-writing the script (with Justin Theroux) and directing, and to Downey, brilliant as a white actor surgically turned black actor for his role and utterly committed to staying in character no matter what ("I don't drop character till I done the DVD commentary"). Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan Directed by: Ben Stiller Written by: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen Produced by: Ben Stiller, Brian Taylor, Eric McLeod, Justin Theroux Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, NTSC Language: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Region: Region 1 Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Number of Discs: 1 Rating: R (Restricted) Studio : Dreamworks Video DVD Release Date : 2008-11-18 Run Time : 107 minutes ASIN/ISBN : B001H5X7I4 Retail $29.98 Tropic Thunder

The sequel to the animated movie Madagascar gives more of everything audiences loved in the first movie: More of the penguins; more of Julian, king of the lemurs; more musical bits of classic rock; and many, many more lions, zebras, hippos, and giraffes. In the first film, a quartet of coddled zoo animals found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Madagascar in a misguided effort to return them to the wild. InMadagascar: Escape 2 Africa, a failed attempt to fly back to New York maroons Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith), and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) in an animal preserve on the African continent, accompanied by the four deranged penguins and the lunatic lemur king (deliriously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat). By wild coincidence, this is where Alex was born--and where his father is still the alpha lion, and where his malevolent uncle seeks to take over (let's call this an homage to The Lion King). The other beasts have their own story arcs, but really it's all an excuse for daffy comic bits. Though the result is disposable, it's also entirely entertaining. The action sequences pop with dizzying spectacle; though some jokes are mainstream fodder, more often they're surprisingly quirky and engagingly oddball. This is the best kind of cotton candy filmmaking--it dissolves into nothing, but it's oh-so-sweet to the taste. --Bret Fetzer Starring: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen Directed by: Eric Darnell Written by: Etan Cohen Produced by: Mark Swift, Mireille Soria Format: Widescreen, NTSC Language: EnglishFrenchSpanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Region: Region 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number of Discs: 1 Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio : DreamWorks DVD Release Date : 2009-02-06 Run Time : 89 minutes ASIN/ISBN : B001NCDFTW Retail $29.98 IMDB Link: Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Widescreen) Official Website: Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Widescreen) Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa (Widescreen)