TRON : LEGACY

Ok then, allow me – if I may – to set my stall out right from the start. I am unashamedly a Tron fan. This movie and I go waaaay back. This is another meaningful part of my childhood right here. When I was but a young lad in short trousers I owned a Tron duvet cover that was scientifically calibrated to be ‘100% awesome’. It had a picture of Tron on the duvet and lightcycles on the pillowcase. I wish I still had it. My friend, Nick Osbourne, had a fantastic LED Tron game. It played 3 different games on it which was high tech for them days! You could play a lightcycle race, the disc game and finally attempt to defeat the Master Control Program. It was the height of coolness (Nick also had a ‘Snoopy Tennis’ game which likewise very cool but that’s a story for another time). I also purchased the hardcover TRON storybook from Salmon’s Newsagent, and although I am currently unsure of its precise whereabouts, I must faithfully assume it is still somewhere in my parent’s house on account of the fact I have never authorised it for release to either charity shop nor car boot sale. It depicted the movie in storybook form complete with half page and full page stills from the film. In those heady days before the internet and dvd those movie storybooks were the next best thing and I loved them.

Anyway, having been irreparably harmed by The Phantom Menace, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (it’s been two years but I’m still not over it. The pain is still raw) I was excited, yet subconsciously prepared for another such childhood ruining incident. I am therefore incredibly pleased to report that Tron: Legacy was GREAT!!! It was, in the words of Kevin Flynn, "Bio Electric Jazz". It was a party in my EYES and everyone was invited!

In 1989 Kevin Flynn disappears on his way to work. Leap to the present day and his son, Sam Flynn, now the absentee CEO of ENCOM, answers a mysterious page from his father’s office. Investigating the source he finds himself beamed into ‘The Grid’ where he must try to survive and bring home his trapped Father.

I have read differing reports since this came out. Most of the negative criticism revolving around the plot (or lack thereof), but I really don’t know what people were expecting. Reading the inanities of some fool on Aint It Cool News complaining that Jeff Bridges was too Lebowski-like, or missing the point of the cameo/in joke that was Cillian Murphy/Edward Dillinger, I came to realise the review really was just a big fat waste of the internet. Some people are destined to never be happy and completely miss the point of things. Perhaps Tron: Legacy will follow the path of the much maligned, yet criminally underrated Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. Another stunningly beautiful film that makes up for minor plot flimsiness with a wealth of style, attractiveness and downright coolness that most other films can only ever pine after like a kicked dog.

I confess though, I was seduced by the visuals. But isn’t that the POINT of Tron, to a degree? I thought the design and the effects were jaw dropping, yet I relished the little details too, like the slightly distorted computer-y vocal effects, or Clu’s sidekick who looked like a cross between Lobot and one of the baddies from The Last Starfighter.

Jeff Bridges was great as always. Kevin Flynn is an idealistic old hippy and therefore you can't fail to think of The Dude. I admit when he faced off against Clu I was half expecting him to say "Well, yeah that's just like, your opinion, man"!! The CGI generated, fresh faced Jeff Bridges also worked remarkably well as Clu. Seeing as how Clu was a computer generated character within The Grid, the slightly unnatural look to him worked nicely. Garret Hedlund was solid as Sam Flynn, and Olivia Wilde mooned around for 2 hours with big doe eyes and an angular haircut and made every Tron nerd’s heart and brain explode simultaneously. Michael Sheen was superb as the Bowie-like Castor/Zuse. Stealing every scene he was in, and clearly having as much fun making the film as I had watching it.

Seeing Tron: Legacy in 3D IMAX, you really get the full benefit of how utterly STUNNING this movie looks. It made me feel a bit like the pretentious kid from American Beauty watching a plastic bag swoop around a car park on the wind. Just stop for a second and appreciate how incredible this film looks! Seeing Gem (Beau Garrett)’s mesmerising, spandex clad bum,  on a screen that was seven storey’s high (the 3rd largest in the World, no less) makes you realise what a wonderful World we live in. As the boffins toiled away for many moons (no pun intended) to develop the 3D technology, I wonder if they could ever have envisioned how it would have been put to such perfect a use as this. I’m sure you will join me next year in putting forward the names of those scientists for a Nobel Prize nomination. Humanity as a whole benefits from this.

From the moment the titles rolled, I was down with this movie. When the Lightcycles appeared for the first time I was grinning from ear to ear like a lunatic. The Daft Punk score is killer. Perfect almost. They put in a cameo at Castor’s sexy computer party, and channel the long lost mojo of John Carpenter. If there is any doubt from you at this point, let me spell it out: this is an exceedingly wonderful thing!

(As an aside I like to think that perhaps John Carpenter lost his movie mojo after going for a swim. Having completed his last great work, They Live, he popped into the local council swimming baths on the way home to do a few lengths. Having towelled off, dried his wavy 80’s lion hair, and sculpted his Fu Manchu moustache into its proper glory, I conceive that he got up to leave taking the wrong bag home with him! Instead of the bag containing his movie mojo, he returned home with someone’s wet swimming trunks and has, for the last 20 odd years, been making movies with a pair of damp speedos in the stead of his own raging cinematic genius. It would explain a great many things. Quite how this happened however, we can never be 100% certain. I like to think he picked up a similar looking, but incorrect bag. Perhaps it was the type of standard issue waterproof duffel bag we were issued in primary school. Perhaps it had a picture of a footballer on the front in order to make it more exciting. Whatever actually happened, it means John Carpenter’s mojo may still be in that municipal pool. Perhaps chucked on top of a locker by a school bully, or resting peacefully at the bottom of the changing room urinal alongside a solitary, moulded stud, Gola football boot.)

Finally I liked how it was titled Tron: Legacy and not something dreadfully unimaginative like Tron 2. Whenever there is a dismal numerical sequel title (hello ‘Die Hard 4.0’), all I can ever think about is Saul Rubinek’s quote from True Romance: “I have more taste in my penis”!

The title also helped the movie feel, not like a sequel, but like an extension of the story. The whole thing looked top to bottom phenomenal, and as a sequel, even though the story wasn't the strongest, it WORKED in the context of the first and didn't feel cheap! It was refreshing to see some last vestige of my childhood movie love not shit upon for a change, as well as being thoroughly enjoyable all round.

IMDB: Tron : Legacy

BUNNY AND THE BULL

This is a real gem of a film from director Paul King, whose work on the Mighty Boosh seems to have served, rather unfairly, as the main marketing point for this movie. There’s some Boosh styled silliness for sure and Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett provide laughs in some excellent supporting roles, but any comparisons would be misleading because the film is a warm, funny, inspired vision that is equal parts as amusing as it is poignant; and it should be judged very much on it’s own inventive merits.

It’s a tale told in flashback by Stephen, a lonely shut-in, recounting his travels around Europe with best mate Bunny, and Eloisa the fiery Spanish waitress they meet along the way. Essentially the film is a journey around Stephen’s mind with fantastic flourishes of imagination – a seafood restaurant is quite literally sketched out behind them, a horse race rendered in Captain Pugwash styled animation,  or the fearsome bull of the title depicted as a stomping, snorting, stop-motion amalgamation of cogs and scissors. This is a visually stunning movie with a great heart, and it’s a story well told.

It is also, crucially, very funny. Some great cameos abound, from Noel Fielding’s Spanish bullfighter to Julian Barrett’s disturbing canine obsessed hobo. With Richard Ayoade’s fantastically mundane Shoe Museum guide being the real standout.

There’s a nod to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as we traverse Simon’s memories and as a comparison, Eternal Sunshine stands as good one. Both movies blend the laughs and tears of the downtrodden hero to good effect.

In trying not to give away too much, it becomes hard to give away anything at all. Although the movie is best approached that way, it may explain why it was a hard sell. Bunny and the Bull is a film that defies categorisation – is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? The answer is both. It moves effortlessly between being deliriously funny and genuinely touching poignancy. But the most important thing to take from it is joy at a film basking in inventiveness and creativity. They have crafted a beautiful, humorous tale without straying into either weak humour nor maudlin heart-string tugging. We have a film setting out to be original and unique and largely succeeding on all counts.

This film is warm, funny and inspired and deserves to be seen by anyone craving an example of film with boundless humour and imagination. For my money, it’s one of the films of the year. Wonderful.

IMDB: Bunny And The Bull