Tropic Thunder 4K UHD Screenshots (Patreon)

Video

Dolby Vision makes Tropic Thunder's color palette simmers down on UHD compared to the Blu-ray. The notable digitally-graded warmth doesn't exaggerate as much, but Tropic Thunder still steers toward an amber hue. Other primaries find their moments, the jungle greenery sensational in spots.

That warmth factors into the contrast, avoidant of pure white, taking more of an orange-ish tint. That limits peak brightness by design, yet this is still a hearty, bold image. Black levels keep a steady density, only crushing in moments where intended. When Coogan meets Nolte in the tent at night, shadows crush fully, leaving only necessary pieces visible. This happens as nightfalls in the jungle too. Other times, it's borderline aggressive on the shadows, questionable, if not a significant fault. When Black first admits his drug use, color reproduction dies for a moment, and crushing blacks don't help.

Reasonable grain reproduction keeps noise at bay. Tropic Thunder looks like film, and while the resolution gain is nominal over the Blu-ray, there is fidelity gain. Facial texture shines in close, and wide angles showing the jungle show spectacular definition. Tree lines and tall grass utilize the additional resolution.

Audio

A thumper, Kino ports over the DTS-HD track from the Blu-ray. It's not subtle. War scenes blast the low-end, with helicopter rotors throbbing in the subwoofer, gunshots blare, and blasts from mortar fire rattle the entire room. There's nothing subtle here. Tropic Thunder parodies action movie sound design too, erupting with absurdly full range.

Surrounds handle so much activity, there is disappointment Atmos/DTS:X wasn't an option. Gunfire spreads wide through the soundstage. Screaming and shouting fills every channel. The design keeps activity high no matter the sequence, dialog stretching wide if needed based on camera moves. Rain rolls trough the fronts and stereos flawlessly.