Thirty Days of Disney Movies, Day Twenty-One - Movie With My Favorite Actor

Jeff Bridges was 32 when he appeared in his first Disney film. It took him 28 years to do it again.

Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) faces off
with Clu (Jeff Bridges).

Bridges played video game geek Kevin Flynn and his digital doppelganger Clu in both Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010). For two movies where actors took the backseat to whiz-bang special effects, Bridges still managed to stand out, a credit to his gifts as an actor. Throughout his career, he's had a knack for making mediocre movies good and good movies great (see The Big Lebowski, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, and the criminally overlooked The Door in the Floor).

Neither Tron nor Tron: Legacy are great films, but they are entertaining eye candy and that's OK. That's all they were intended to be. Tron tested the limits of early computer animation and is the more groundbreaking film. Tron: Legacy, however, is the better overall movie experience, with bigger and bolder visual effects. Twenty-eight years of improved digital technology were kind to it.

You're messing with my Zen thing, man!

As far as Bridges performances, I prefer him as the cocky, goofy computer nerd of the first movie compared to the grizzled zen master he played in the second ("180 degrees from where we left him," commented Bridges). His nervous energy as he bounds up the stairs of the research lab or explains his plan to recover stolen game programs are what propel the scenes that are otherwise "off the Grid." He proves the perfect foil for bad guy David Warner, who does triple duty as the weaselly corporate drone Dillinger, his merciless program Sark, and the all-powerful Master Control Program (I'm pretty sure Warner played the villain in every movie produced in the 1980s--and then he sunk the Titanic).

In Tron: Legacy, using motion capture animation and facial mapping, Bridges played Clu as a younger version of himself. The effect is creepy, but it works. And it's still Bridges performance, even if it is digitally reproduced.

Kevin Flynn's ultimate fate in Tron: Legacy was up for grabs, leaving the door open for a new Tron installment (a script is already being worked on). Disney already put "day after" teaser videos on the Blu-ray release of Tron: Legacy, which were also briefly leaked online. Apparently, there is much speculation that "Flynn Lives."

Will Jeff Bridges be back for a third go-round on the Grid? I expect he will, and he'll again be as much fun to watch as the digital bells and whistles on screen.

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'Tron' and 'Tron: Legacy' Debut on Blu-ray April 5

Grid geeks rejoice! Disney will release Tron and Tron: Legacy on Blu-ray April 5.

The eye-popping Legacy sequel, starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, will come in 2- and 4-disc Combo Packs that have both Blu-ray and standard DVD discs. The 4-pack will include Blu-ray 3D and digital copies as well. A single-disc DVD version will also be available.

The original Tron will be re-released to video in 2-disc Blu-ray Combo Packs and 2-disc DVDs.

Want the whole enchilada? You can also get a 5-disc set containing both movies.

Disney will offer their new Second Screen "interactive experience" on the Tron: Legacy Blu-rays. Synched up with your Blu-ray player, you can view exclusive bonus materials on your iPad or laptop while you watch the movie.

Also on April 5, Disney will release Tron: Legacy Reconfigured, a remix of the movie soundtrack by French music duo Daft Punk.

Related articles:
'Tron: Legacy,' a Cinematic E-Ticket Ride
The Legacy of 'Tron'

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Back on the Grid; 'Tron: Legacy' Premieres This Weekend

The reviews are mixed, but that's not stopping me from getting my game grid geekery on tonight and catching the midnight showing of Tron: Legacy.  I'll post my own review later, but in the meantime, here's a behind-the-scenes look at the film with some "blue carpet" comments from the cast and crew:



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The Legacy of 'Tron'

OK, let's be honest here. Tron was never a great movie.

Visually stunning for its time, yes, but not much else. The story had something to do with a video game geek (Jeff Bridges) getting back the game programs that the evil corporate hot shot (David Warner) stole from him.  The game geek hangs out with the computer geek (Bruce Boxleitner) and the lab geek (the hot chick from Caddyshack). Lame dialog, trite storyline. The game geek gets zapped into a computer grid. Complications ensue.

If Disney had made Tron ten years earlier, Kurt Russell would've starred as Kevin Flynn and Cesar Romero would've been Master Control. But, this was 1982 and computer animation was about to change everything you knew about movies. What do you remember about the first time you saw Tron? It sure as heck wasn't the story. It was all about super-cool special effects and light cycle races. Am I right?

But, 28 years later, it's still with you. And come December, if you're of a certain age, you're taking your kids--maybe even your grandkids--to geek out once again on the private lives of computer chips. And the special effects might have improved just a wee bit this time around. I took in the 23-minute preview of Tron: Legacy at Thursday's nationwide "Tron Night" presentation.  As a first impression, it did not disappoint. The movie's darker, even brooding at times, with young Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) pulled into the same computer world where his father Kevin (Bridges) apparently disappeared 20 years ago. When we discover Kevin this time, though, he seems less a prisoner of the game grid and more its sullen Zen master. For now, let's just call him the Dude in the Machine.

To get to his father, Sam must fight his way through a series of games, throwing deadly lighted discs and, oh yes, racing light cycles. He's assisted by the chirpy but mysterious Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a cross between Trinity from The Matrix and Abby from NCIS.

Even in the preview, there are story elements that don't quite make sense--like why was the phone service turned off at Flynn's Arcade 20 years ago, but not the power?--but the purpose of the whole movie is to get you on the grid, and once you're there it looks fantastic. There's a sense of realism in Tron: Legacy that simply wasn't possible in 1982. The grid looks like a real place, not a day-glow computer effect. Credit director Joseph Kosinski for using real light whenever possible, even embedded in the characters' costumes. It's makes the CG enhancements that much more realistic.

Allow me to gripe about 3D again, however. It's superfluous and doesn't improve the look of Tron: Legacy. I'll be catching the final release in 2D, thank you very much.

Tron: Legacy opens December 17. I'll be the one in line with all the rabid fanboys. We've waited 28 years for this. That's an awfully long time to wait for a sequel to a mediocre movie.

But, geez, that light cycle race was cool.

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