"I know what dude I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!" -- Robert Downey, Jr.

Tropic Thunder is big budget, A-List, layered comedy the likes of which we rarely see today. Ben Stiller nursed this film into existence, writing, starring and directing. But Stiller's most brilliant move in this film was the casting, which is across-the-board phenomenal. Downey Jr. goes ahead and steals the show right out from under everyone except for Tom Cruise, who is so unrecognizably gross that many missed the actor's presence completely.

The Blu-ray of Tropic Thunder is gorgeous. It is important because from what I've heard, Tropic Thunder is one of the most expensive comedies ever made. It shows here. The jungle sequences, the explosions, they all look phenomenal. And even the special features are in HD quality.

There is some really funny stuff there in the features. But the disc's biggest short coming is the cut of the film they chose to present. I saw Tropic Thunder in theaters and consider it one of the best comedies I've seen in years. Here, with the Director's Cut, the film suffers a little bit. I can't criticize too much, since they made the better choice in the cut shown to audiences this summer; but literally nothing that was added to the Director's Cut made the film funnier. A + B = The Director's Cut is actually LESS of a good film because in comedies the jokes need to keep coming. Trimming the fat off of comedies is an art and this cut doesn't do the film any favors.

Of course, the real lasting appeal of Tropic Thunder won't be the lavish production, but the rich send-up of acting as a profession, Hollywood as a culture, and war films as an inspiration to us civilians. Tropic Thunder is an intelligent comedy peeling back the layers of our identity as the characters plunge into the heart of darkness.

The scene which gets to the root of this identity crisis is one in which Lazarus (Downey Jr.) has to help Speedman (Stiller) snap out of his role so they can escape to safety. Both men are confronted with how shallow and insecure they really are, and how little they actually know themselves. This scene is genuine comedy gold and has me laughing just thinking about it. "I know what dude I am!" But it also tugs at something for us to think about.

In this celebrity-saturated, media-soaked American culture, how do we truly peel back the façade and figure out who we truly are? Tropic Thunder isn't exactly the film to answer those kinds of questions. But it is a film that is willing to poke fun at the actor in us all.