'Tropic Thunder' on DVD November 18th

Is Tropic Thunder the consensus funniest movie of the year? I'd have to say that it probably is. The raunchiest jackasses I know loved the movie and then at a press screening this past Wednesday, the very genteel and amiable female host of a local TV morning show confessed the same thing to me. For satire, there's no question that Thunder is incredibly well done, and like the best Mel Brooks satires - and make no mistake, this is very much in that mold - it's also insanely funny. Though I didn't love Jack Black in it, I thought Ben Stiller was fine (and that's not really a guarantee), and Robert Downey Jr. was fantastic.We just heard from Paramount Home Entertainment that the Tropic Thunder DVD is getting a November 18th release date. In case you're keeping score, that's three months and three days after it was released in theaters. That's an incredibly quick turnaround, but it's also smart counterprogramming by Paramount. Undoubtedly, the rest of the industry knows that their movies are playing for scraps this holiday season. The economy is dreadful and The Dark Knight is the top choice for DVD purchases. So jumping ahead of that movie, instead of following it in the home video market as it did in theaters, helps out a lot. This way, people will still buy The Dark Knight, because it's not even a question that they will, and Tropic Thunder won't have to deal with late December ambivalence. Instead, it'll be there on Black Friday, probably marked down considerably, and as a result, this movie should enjoy a great first month on DVD.Now...on to the good stuff: What will you find on the DVD? There's the basic one-disc version, which shouldn't even be an option anymore, and then there's the two-disc director's cut edition and the Blu-Ray director's cut.Here's a list of the special features, available only on the director's cut versions:- Commentary with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr
- Blowing Shit Up featurette
- The Hot LZ featurette
- Seven cast featurettes
- Tom Cruise make-up test
- Full Mags
- The very funny MTV Movie Awards "Viral" Sketch
- The trailer for Rain of Madness, the phony documentary about the making of the film within the film
- A DreamWorks public service announcement No Simple Jack, I'm afraid. Or at the very least, they're not promoting it if it is on the DVD somewhere. Kind of knew that would be the case. We don't have a price for the DVDs yet, although you can safely assume it's in the ballpark with every other new DVD.