Interviewing Shana Feste, Writer-Director of "Country Strong"

Reviewing "Country Strong" and Paul Giamatti on Awards Buzz

Reviewing "TRON: Legacy," "Yogi Bear," and "True Grit" on Today in LA

A Critic's Showdown Over "TRON: Legacy," and Light Cycle Margaritas

Scott Ross: “Tron: Legacy” is the grandest cinematic bimbo of 2010: stunning to look at, but gets progressively less attractive the more it talks.

Look, it’s a “Tron” sequel that’s being made largely because technology has gotten awesome and there are toys to sell. There’s no need to muck it up with Joseph Campbell/Matrix gobbledygook. And ironically, in spite of all the silly explication, the film somehow leaves a pantload of questions unanswered. I just wish they’d’ve fired up the light cycles, kicked the bad guy’s ass and called it a day.

Sasha Perl-Raver: You call "TRON: Legacy" a bimbo, and you may be right, but since when is that a bad thing? It might not be the kind of movie you want to bring home to mother, like J.J. Abrams' pitch-perfect reboot of "Star Trek," but it's still compelling enough for a one night stand that leaves you happily spent and already considering a second go-'round.

You can fault "TRON" for trying to be both a sequel and an origin story, flinging far too much expository backstory at the audience, and with one or two more action sequences on the light cycle or in the arena, I think it would bump up from a B+ to an A, but how can you say you'd kick it out of bed?

SR: Whoa there—who said anything about kicking “Tron” out of bed? But seriously, there are some great moments in the film, like when Bridges learns about wi-fi, and the film would’ve benefited from a lot more of those. If only Bridges had fully committed to his Obi Wan Lebowski shtick.

Instead, the film tries so hard to sound smart and deep, that it ends up sounding dumb and shallow. Man vs. God, father vs. son, the Holy Trinity, the nature of perfection… these are not groundbreaking ideas—it’s the stuff you talk about at 4:20 in morning over day-old pizza. Can a brother get a discus battle?

SPR: I'm with you, chief. Another identity disc battle is just what the doctor ordered. But, speaking of 4:20, watching Bridges say things like, "I'm gonna go knock on the sky and listen to the sound," or his brilliantly simple response when Clu asks if he's still meant to create the perfect society ("Yeah?! "), are worth the price of admission.

If you want to get nit-picky, can someone explain to me why all multi-billionaire sons of privilege are disaffected base-jumping, motorcycle-riding whiners? It seems to me life is pretty good for the Sam Flynn's of the world, but I digress.

At the end of the day, "TRON: Legacy" isn't without its faults, but I'm still a champion for any world where everywhere you go Daft Punk is rocking out, you can tell the good guys from the bad based on the glow of their neon unitards and Jeff Bridges is the savior.

SR: Who’s being too tough now? Did it occur to you that Sam was a “whiner” because he mother died and his father disappeared? Yeesh… And I actually thought the whole base-jumping/motorcycle riding scene made his skills in the arena plausible.

I wholeheartedly agree that the Daft Punk music was dope and you have to love the fact they were probably the only folks in the film who got to wear their own clothes.

Maybe I’m coming off as overly negative, because the sheer spectacle of “Tron: Legacy” is definitely worth the time and money—but only if you’re going to watch it as intended, in Imax 3D, 'cuz I just can’t imagine it being a lot of fun on a regular old movie or TV screen.

SPR: I’m not a proponent of 3D, in fact, before TRON, the only movie where it really worked for me was How to Train Your Dragon, but in IMAX 3D, you’re transported onto The Grid, no psychotropics required. But even without it, I think the spectacle Joe Kosinksi created will stand up in other formats. The fact that the Disney logo alone drew a collective Joey Lawrence-style “Whoa” from the audience at both screenings I’ve attended, says a lot.

Legacy may be a little too tightly wound and overly eager to please, but I think it’s less a bimbo and more like the Victoria’s Secret catalogue; stunning, elusive in its obsessive perfection, occasionally vapid, but worthy of worship and repeat viewings.

written for NBC's Popcorn Biz

Earlier this year, I offered up a recipe for TRON: Legacy Derezzed Soup. This time around, how's about something you might sip at the End of the Line Club while rocking out to Daft Punk?

Light Cycle Margaritas
1 English cucumber, 1/2 cubed, 1/2 thinly sliced
2 green jalapeno peppers, 1 seeded and chopped, 1 thinly sliced
1 cup (8 ounces) silver tequila (you can’t go wrong with Patron)
1/4 cup tripe sec
3 tablespoons Blue Curacao
1/4 cup fresh lime juice plus 1 tablespoon

For garnish:
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
lime wedges

In a blender or food processor, combine chopped jalapeno, cubed cucumber and 1 tablespoon lime juice. Puree until smooth.

In a shaker filled with ice, combine cucumber-chili puree, tequila, triple sec, Blue Curacao and lime juice.

Combine 3 tablespoons kosher salt with 1 teaspoon chili powder. Run lime wedge around lip of tall chilled glass and dip in chili salt.

Carefully fill rimmed glasses with cucumber and jalapeno slices. Top with ice and strain margarita mix over ice.

"TRON: Legacy" Preview and "Derezzed" Soup Recipe

Over the summer, I was in San Diego for the third annual appearance of the "TRON: Legacy" posse at Comic-Con and was less than enthused.

The reboot of the 1982 sci-fi flick has been like peas and carrots with the yearly geek-a-thon since it was first announced; turning up a record three times to hype the film, beginning before even a single frame of footage had been captured.

Seeing the cast there, yet again, I had to fight the urge to shout, "Norm!"

Starring Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund and, of course, Jeff Bridges, digitally enhanced to look like he's been visiting Jennifer Aniston's dermatologist, back in January I wrote a post for NBC that read, "every time we see ["TRON"s] weird, dark "Speed Racer" looking trailer, we get a bad feeling in the pit of our stomach. Is it just us or is the suck potential of that movie super high?"

While I can't speak to the film's final product--it has yet to be completed and screened--as far as potential goes, I now have nothing but the highest hopes and greatest praise thanks to nine incredible minutes I recently saw.

Hey, when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.

This weekend, I found myself at Disneyland's new attraction/interactive marketing campaign, ElecTRONica.

Part of California Adventure, it features a techno dance party, old school games like Centipede and Pac-Man in Flynn's arcade...

...(no secret passage ways, we checked) and an exclusive preview of the film that they tout as being 3D but, thanks to timed lights and blasts of wind, felt more like 4D.


Walking out of that mini preview, I was giddier than a schoolgirl at a Justin Bieber hair-flipping contest.

Follow up films are tricky, especially when they come almost twenty years after the original, but "Legacy" seems to take everything that made the original great and amp it to eleven. Unlike the Lucas effect, where too much technology ruins a good thing ("Episode One," anyone?), "TRON: Legacy" needed to be made in the 21st Century, with all that CGI and 3D have to offer, in order to do visual justice to a story that started in the BetaMax Era.

If the film's two hour running time can hold up to or surpass what they offer in those nine minutes, "Legacy" might just land in the pantheon of great new sci-fi action flicks, alongside J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" and Neill Blomkamp's "District 9."

December 17 can't come soon enough.

In honor of "TRON: Legacy," why not whip up some "Derezzed Soup"?

A play on the Mexican beef soup, Caldo De Rez, this bad boy has a million particles of flavor, but is healthy enough that you can still rock a skin tight, neon-rimmed bodysuit and look good doing it.

TRON: Legacy Derezzed Soup
serves 8-10

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups butternut squash, cubed
2 large potatoes, cubed with skins on
2 ears corn, husked and kernels removed from cob
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
2 zucchinis, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
about 6 cups water
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 limes, zested and juiced
4-6 tablespoons hot sauce, preferably Tapatio or Cholula
½ cup cilantro, chopped
salt to taste

In a large stock pot over medium high heat, sauté onions in oil until tender and opaque, about five minutes. Add garlic, squash and potatoes and sauté another five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add corn kernels, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Cover with water, season with salt and cumin and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, skimming off any foam that rises, until vegetables are tender, about 25-30 minutes.

Add lime zest and juice, hot sauce, cilantro and check for salt.

Now dig into that business like you're Pac-Man (or Miss Pac-Man, whatever the case may be).

Comic-Con 2010: 'Tron The Pill,' Jeff Bridges' 3D Innovation

Making their third annual appearance at Comic-Con, this morning the entire Tron: Legacy posse, including Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Olivia Wilde and Garrett Hedlund, showed up this morning to pimp their film, once again, to the San Diego crowd.

Tron and Comic-Con have been like peas and carrots in recent years. But don’t expect a complaint from Michael Sheen. An admitted fanboy himself, Sheen was as giddy as a Trekkie with a new pair of Spock ears to be in San Diego promoting his project.

Sheen: “I was supposed to come for a few years, with Underworld, Alice in Wonderland and Twilight, and I wasn't able to. I wanted to build up a really big head of steam so that when I got here, I'd be carried shoulder-high through the streets, crowned the new King of Comic-Con. That hasn't happened yet. So you have the chance to make this young man's dream come true.”

It’s been 28 years since Tron first hit theaters. Obviously Jeff Bridges was a much younger man then, one who’d enjoyed far less of life’s carnal pleasures. When asked how he felt to be jumping back into the Tron world, he said he’d heard rumors about the film’s return for two decades but had sort of given up on the idea.

“Disney had it on its back burners and they were not satisfied with the script so they waited and I'm so happy they did,” Bridges said. “Because we got a good script and they held out to find the right guy at the helm. With [drector Joe Kosinski] they found a terrific leader.”

Before Kosinski did any casting or camera tests, his first step in buiding the new world of Tron was to hook up with Daft Punk to create a score the director says blends electronic and orchestral music “that really blurs the line bet sound design and music in a new way.”

“I hooked up with Daft Punk very early in the process, before even doing the effects test piece. We went down to the 101 Cafe in Hollywood and met them for a pancake breakfast. Their passion for Tron and what inspiration it is to them, which I think is obvious if you've ever been to their live shows, we talked about it for a long time and got started on the music before we ever started shooting and still are, almost two years later. They are, as we speak, putting finishing touches on the score.”

Sure, the score will be super cool, but the thing everything, including the actors, seemed the most excited about were the neon bodysuits they wore during filming. Responding to a question about how they were to wear, the cast said:

Olivia Wilde: It was amazing.
Michael Sheen: It was amazing--to watch Olivia in the suit.
Wilde (laughing): It was totally revolutionary. We were wearing electro-luminescent lamps woven through neoprene and all these other materials. We would get really excited every time the suits would turn on.
Garrett Hedlund: At the beginning, you’ve got to train immensely for the suit and then they’ve got this thing called Cyber-Scan where they create this suit out of every curve and definition of your body so it’s completely exact and fits like a glove. Then the greatest thing is, you go into a dark room room and the producer has their kids around, you light it up and they just go “Aaaaaahhhh!”
Sheen: There was a great moment before every take where sound’s rolling, camera and, just before they’d say action, they’d say, "Light them up! And—action!" And suddenly the whole room would go "Bing" and you'd forget to act for a little bit, it’s so cool.

That’s a moment audiences will get to experience in 3D when the movie hits theaters December 12, 2010. Asked how he sees 3D technology evolving, Bridges said "We're always looking for something to bring the audience into the story. Isn't 3D without glasses coming out? Or holograms? That's where it's going. Or maybe you'll just take a pill. ‘TRON: The Pill.’"

From the Dude’s mouth to your ears.