Tron

Disney | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Chad Estrella

A game programmer, Flynn, (Jeff Bridges) runs an arcade in a downtown city and he wants to get into the master computer at Encom where he was fired. Three years ago Flynn designed a few video games that he had on his computer at work. Then one day they were stolen by a fellow programmer named Ed Dilinger. Dilinger displayed them for Encom saying he programed them and was promoted immediately. Flynn is now looking in the database to find the evidence that will destroy Dilinger, who is now the Sr. Vice President, and get what is rightfully his. Dilinger detects this and will do what he can to stop Flynn.

The master control program detects some wrong doing and the system 7 clearence has been stalled for a few days until they can find who is doing this. A programmer at Encom, Alan, (Bruce Boxleitner) has a security program called Tron that he wants to load into the system. But Dilinger is afraid that he will not be able to run his system the way he wants. So he will to what he can to keep this out of his master control program. Alan, Flynn and Lora (Cindy Morgan) go to Encom and with Alan and Lora's clearance they want to get into the mainframe and help Flynn get the evidence he will need to put Dilinger where he belongs. In doing so Flynn is transfered by the master control program into the computer. There he is transfered to the game grid and he must pass some video games and with the help of the Tron program destroy the master control program and prove Dilinger stole Flynn's video games.

I really liked this movie when it came out in 1982 and to be honest I liked the video game even more. I remember going to Chuck E. Cheeses (a themed pizza parlor in Southern California) after Little League baseball games and taking all my tokens to go play this game. I have been hooked on video games ever since. This movie was unique in its time and righfully so still is. I have always enjoyed this movie and until recently I never really understood the plot of the movie. I used to just liked the cool special effects and how it was related to a video game. The Matrix is about the closest thing to Tron since it opened 17 years ago. I recommend watching this one if you liked the Matrix and have never seen Tron. It is a classic in my mind. You should be able to buy it for about $17 over the internet with a coupon if you choose to do so.

This a pretty good looking transfer of the 1982 cult classic. The vibrant colors look very good and have a tendency to bleed a little at times. This is the best this movie has ever looked. There are some dirt and specs in a couple of minor instances, but nothing that will detract you from enjoying this entertaining movie.

This sounds pretty good as well. The front soundstage is pretty wide and the bass is surpisingly low when the machines are flying around. The rear speakers don't get much attention though. The weird thing with this soundtrack is that by using my display button on my Sony remote shows that the film starts out in 5.1 sound then swithces, right after the title screen, to 4.1 sound. I did these repeatedly and the same thing happens all the time. If you just leave the display up there it will say 5.1, but when you fast forward or turn off the display and turn it back on it shows 4.1. Weird? I think so.

All you get here is an old dirty trailer in mono sound. They could have at least cleaned it up and letterboxed it for crying out loud!