Goodbye John Hughes

Image by MacQ via Flickr

I knew I had reached a point of no return in my stealthy maturation when I began consistently refusing every new offering from the youth fueled media and clothing industry. I cannot connect with teens of today. Lawful restrictions aside, I fail to establish any intimate understanding of teenagers or their interests, outlooks, styles, and actions. This landscape however was one in which film legend John Hughes could stroll through comfortably and confidently, despite his handicap of being an adult.

Though he had a limited directing career, every movie he crafted was a comedic and dramatic gem. Like early Spielberg, Hughes knew how to get an emotional depth from his actors that made them more than just characters. He embraced his audience and catered to them, feeding my generation bittersweet spoonfuls of our own angst and humor. As a writer I admire Hughes' ability to tell great stories, build memorable characters, and construct dialogue that can be both endearing and hilarious.

I don't know if current teens appreciate or are even aware of John Hughes and his cinematic canon. I don't need to list his accomplishments, as the people who know, know and the people who don't, don't matter. The mostly thirty-something fans who can join me in fond memory of Hughes feel his loss the most. We may not connect with the teens of today, but when viewing any Hughes masterpiece we can connect with the teens we used to be.

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Reverting to a childhood mindset or: How I learned to lower my expectations and enjoy an action movie

Like the rest of cinema obsessed America, I still get tinglings of excitement when whisperings of a good sequel travel on the Hollywood winds. However, years of feeble coattail follow-ups and theatrical disappointments have left me apprehensive of remakes and silver screen successors. So when I heard about a Tron continuation I was both thrilled and chilled. Before I continue, if you've even made it to the end of this sentence, here is the available trailer:



So, what are the details behind Tron Legacy and will it be any good? Disney's endorsement doesn't give me immediate confidence in the project, but at least it's not some unknown production company either. (Disney backed the 1982 version.) Jeff Bridges reprises the character Flynn and I trust Bridges' judgment when accepting a role. The original director Steven Lisberger is taking a producing credit this time around which doesn't say much either way. There's promise when original players come back, (when they weren't under contract to do so), but money can corrupt all men so we won't assume the script is solid gold. However, as writing credits go we could do worse. Lisberger contributes as he did for the original, as well as Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis; both are writers and producers for numerous Lost episodes. The big question is, who's directing?

His name is Joseph Kosinksi and yes, he's a nobody. His background, besides being quite limited, is in commercials and video game trailers, and it's obvious from viewing a few of his projects that he is focused on special effects and CGI. While the game and graphics portfolio makes Kosinksi an appropriate choice for this movie, it leaves little hope for the actors and story. These type of directors lack the skill to get real performances from the stars and would probably rather not deal with people anyway. Human elimination from film has been tried and fails miserably each time. Think Final Fantasy and Beowulf. For sex appeal they've included Olivia Wilde and Serinda Swan (rumored), which only confirms my doubts of this being an actor fueled picture.

The trailer reveals what we can ultimately expect from Tron Legacy: visual effects, explosions, slow motion action and maybe some occasional dialogue. I'm picturing The Matrix with an alternate color scheme.

While I'm not going to pretend the first Tron was an awesome and untouchable film, I still greatly enjoyed it and don't want to see it tainted. Perhaps it's more nostalgia and a respect for pioneering effects that keep my interest in the original, because a current review of it is quite unfavorable. The acting was mediocre then as well and the story was kind of silly. In the end, both Tron pictures will have been visually driven with little regard to much else. But sometimes, that's all we want and just what we need.