In anticipation of the December release of Tron Legacy, we watched the original Tron today. We watched Crazy Heart a few weeks ago but the Jeff Bridges connection between the two creates an opportunity to combine reviews.
TRON (1982)
In this typical good vs. evil story, Jeff Bridges, as Kevin Flynn, is sucked into the digital world. In this digital world, all is dictated by the Master Control Program (MCP) and “users” (computer programmers) are gods. This digital world where he is stuck is a kind of purgatory for “appropriated” programs. These programs are personified, literally.
Flynn and his program companions (one of which is Tron – a program created by his real world friend Alan) are on a journey to defeat the MCP and free the appropriated programs and allow them to communicate with their users once again.
A much younger Jeff Bridges was goofy and barely a flicker of the actor he would become. But he was an upbeat and fun hero in this campy yet amusing movie.
Everything was accompanied by odd video game-ish music, think Kraftwerk meets Pac Man, which is a bit different from the music in Crazy Heart.
Crazy Heart (2009)
About 27 years later, Jeff Bridges is surrounded by a different kind of music – Country!
When a reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal) interviews Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) -- an alcoholic, seen-better-days country music legend -- they connect, and the hard-living crooner sees a possible saving grace in a life with her and her young son. But can he leave behind an existence playing in the shadow of Tommy (Colin Farrell), the upstart kid he once mentored?
Jeff Bridges plays a talented country singer as well as an incredibly believable drunk. For most of the film it’s a sad story about a “country music legend” who has let himself go in just about every way possible. He smokes non-stop, he drinks until he passes out or throws up, he sleeps with the women who (inexplicably) throw themselves at him at his shows at dive bars and bowling alleys.
While I enjoyed the movie I felt like it was something of a predictable feel-good story that was overtly pulling at the heart strings of the audience. I mean you have an underdog protagonist, a single mom struggling to be a respected journalist, a cute kid, and redemption with a backdrop of heart-plucking country songs. It could be a problem of high expectations going into the movie but I thought it was a good but not great movie.
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