True What? - Or why True Grit didn't make my best-of-2010 list.

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When the entire second act of your movie is basically Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon sitting around a campfire sharing law-enforcement war stories, it helps when one of those characters is not completely incomprehensible. I sat in the very front row, wearing my (recreational) hearing aids, and I still couldn't tell what Cogburn was saying half the darn time.

Scott Mendelson

Review: Tron: Legacy: an IMAX 3D Experience (2010)

Tron: Legacy
2010
125 minutes
rated PG

by Scott Mendelson

Tron: Legacy almost operates as a litmus test for how much we will tolerate in our tent-pole film making. Just how much bad dialogue, poor acting, inexplicable plotting, and emotionally-vapid characterizations will we accept as long as we've been convinced that the film is 'cool'? How little actual content will we demand in exchange for $300 million light shows disguised as motion pictures? We casually accept seemingly intentional mediocrity in our franchise films, from The Flintstones to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, holding our nose but making these films into smash hits. I am reminded of Patrick Stewart's monologue towards the end of Star Trek: First Contact. "The line must be drawn here. This far, and no further." If we as moviegoers accept this artless, soulless confection as a suitable example of big-budget filmmaking, then we deserve everything we get in the following years. The apparent absence of any attempt at quality renders even the (only occasionally) pretty pictures impotent and dull. And make no mistake; Tron: Legacy is a stunningly dull would-be movie.

Tron: Legacy gets a third trailer.

This is an improvement on the second plotless trailer, but it still lacks the film noir menace of the initial teaser. Is it just me, or is the throbbing music (0:49, 1:30, 2:25, etc) trying to deliberately ape the theme from Inception? The third act of this trailer gives away a huge chunk of plot, something that many had already guessed. I'm still on the fence about the project, as frankly I was never a big fan of the first Tron. For what it's worth, my wife is impressed enough by the laser-show visuals that actually she wants to see this (she didn't care for the first Tron either). I assume that Disney will start screening this one after Thanksgiving, unless they follow the Avatar strategy of just having two big screenings the week before the opening. As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson