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This week on the Frotcast, we begin with a discussion of Tron Legacy.  Ben loved it, Bret thought it was okay, Brendan and I thought it was better than expected, but still fairly crappy. It made for a spirited discussion.  About 40 minutes in, we bring on Lindy West to talk The Fighter.  I’m gonna be honest, this was our last Frotcast of the year and we drank a little too much.  Things may have gotten a little… busy. Drunk Lindy was fairly entertaining

• 3:10 – Brendan tricks me into being the only guy wearing a silly hat and business suit at his holiday party

• 17:00 – Bret is finally off work (at 9:40 pm, I might add) and the Tron Legacy discussion can begin

• 30:00 – We get our first visit and movie review from a newcomer to the Frotcast, Junior College Armond White.

• 46:00 – The Kafka-esque Cluster-F that was the San Francisco press screening of Tron

• 52:00 – Lindy West calls in to discuss The Fighter, possibly as many drinks deep as the rest of us.

• 53:00 – A British man with a speech impediment on YouTube reads Lindy’s Sex and the City 2 review. “Va-va-va-va-va-va-vagina…”

• 60:00 – fade out: Lindy and I start talking The Fighter, which the other guys haven’t seen, which leads them to get bored and begin talking amongst themselves, and me to scold them, and then we all begin drinking more heavily and shouting things at each other.  At some point I remember the subject of Kirk Douglas’ corpse with his penis out going down a log flume coming up.  …I don’t know, dude.

[UPDATE: Here's the file on the FilmDrunk server if you've been having trouble with the podbean download.]

DOWNLOAD IT HERE. SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES. NOW AVAILABLE ON ZUNE MARKETPLACE.  [Intro/Outtro music is still "For Good or For Awesome" by the seminal female a capella group, "Satan's Buttcheeks"]

Our drunken arguing makes Gary Busey sad

Drunk on, y’all.  Send your tips, complaints, naked pictures, bits, game ideas, questions, etc. to frotcast@gmail.com. (Gary Busey gif via)

This weekend saw the opening of two potential huge blockbusters, Disney’s Tron Legacy and, uh… Columbia’s How Do You Know, a Reese Witherspoon rom-com from James L. Brooks that somehow cost $100 million to make.  Disney doesn’t release budget figures (the only studio that doesn’t even though it’s publicly traded), but reports put Tron‘s production budget at $170 million, plus another $100 for marketing.  It opened with $43.6 million, which is either a catastrophe or a success, depending on who you talk to.  BoxOfficeMojo calls it “comparable to past December release The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008).”

That went on to gross $79m domestic and $233 million worldwide, which would still be a money loser for Tron.  For comparison, the Star Trek reboot (which was actually good) made $75.2 million in its opening weekend ($385 total), and Clash of the Titans (another 3D reboot that was worse than Tron) pulled in $61.2.  That eventually went on to make $493 million worldwide, since apparently foreigners care far more about Sam Worthington than we do.  You could spin it either way, but my guess is that Tron Legacy do well internationally and that Disney’s evil empire is in no danger of crumbling.

Tron (you can read my review here) at least looked expensive. How Do You Know looked, well, like Reese Witherspoon wore the same shirt the whole time, but somehow cost $120 mil before tax breaks.  I’ll begrudgingly admit that I liked James L. Brooks’ last two movies (Spanglish and As Good As It Gets) but How Do You Know got mostly bad reviews and was DOA with $7.6 million.  I blame the fact that almost every rom-com for the last five years has been mind-blowingly terrible, and this just looked like a traditional rom-com with an older cast.  Could this failure be good for getting less sh*tty rom-coms greenlit?  Doubtful.  It probably just means the ones that do get greenlit will be even more unimaginative, and more like He’s Just Not That Into You/Valentine’s Day, because studios will think of those as “safe bets.”  To you and me, they’ll remain “piles of sh*t” or “Al-Qaeda recruitment videos.”

Meanwhile, Yogi Bear earned $16.7 million, which was way less than Alvin and the Chipmunks, but more than Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore.  Phew.  I know you were worried.
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[Update, Monday 12/20: Reposting this for anyone who saw it over the weekend and wants to weigh in about what a dumbass I am in the comments.]

It’s been a long time since I saw a movie and was as excited to rush home and write about it as I was with Tron Legacy.  Granted, one of the driving motivations in my life is having legitimate complaints to express, so take that for the backhanded compliment it is.  Tron Legacy: thought provoking, but to a greater extent, complaint provoking.

You know the story: Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is the glib, rebellious heir to a Microsoft-like software company who blows off steam by riding a motorcycle Ducati™ and BASE jumping (seriously, base jumping, like five minutes in). Sam, let’s call him Sarcastic Batman, clashes with the chairman of the board, who, like Steve Jobs, wants his software kept tightly under wraps, whereas Sam thinks information should be free, like baby ducks.  That’s the way it was intended by Sam’s father Jeff Bridges, who’s been missing for 20 years.  One night after one of Sam’s clever pranks and BASE jumping stunts, Bruce Boxleitner (awesome porn name, btw) shows up at Sam’s Lethal Weapon-esque loner condo — you know the type, in the middle of the city, yet somehow totally isolated with its own boat dock and a motorcycle in the house. Bruce bears a mysterious page from Dad’s old number, which has been disconnected for 20 years. He tosses Sam the keys to Pops’ warehouse and urges him to investigate, which  Sam has apparently spent the intervening two decades not doing. Sam heads to the warehouse, the last place his dad was seen, which apparently no one has thought to search after he disappeared. Blah blah blah, Sam gets sucked into the computer.  Let’s be honest, none of us really cared about the set up.

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Since we’re in a punny mood, here’s “Tron Jeremy.” Here’s a double pun: Tron Jeremy stars in… Little Fockers. Anyway, you’ll never believe this, but they make reference to his large penis. |ScreenJunkies|

Tron Legacy opens today. Here’s my review. I cleaned it up a lot since I wrote it on no sleep yesterday, and I’ve added more Tron dog. Still wish I’d seen True Grit instead.

Also opening: The Fighter, How Do You Know, Yogi Bear, Casino Jack, and Rabbit Hole.  How Do you Know cost $120 million, so it must be good, right? Right???

“Winona Ryder’s comments make things hairier for Mel Gibson’s Beaver.“  Hee hee! That’s the actual headline.  Damn you, why couldn’t you have said “Jodie Foster’s ‘Beaver’?”  We know what you were going for, there’s no need to beat around the beaver. I mean muff. I mean bush. I mean vagina. |LATimes|

Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman looking to reteam for the first time since Adaptation.  Jonze is coming off Where the Wild Things Are, Kaufman off his directing debut, Synechdoche, New York.  All I know is, if these guys can make a good movie with TWO NIC CAGES in the lead role, I’ll line up for whatever they do. |LATimes|

Clooney replacing Downey in Cuaron’s planned sci-fi epic, Gravity. Can we just make this movie already?  It sounds cool, but I’m sick of hearing about it already.  Pretty sure Yogi Bear went from script to finished product in like three weeks.  On second thought, take your time. |Deadline|

A Very Muppet Proposal. (After the jump), a guy proposes using muppets.

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BOW BEFORE TRONBOWSKI.  Just because it’s an obvious mash up doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome mash up.  (I’ll be seeing Tron Legacy tonight, btw. Hope to tell you about it reaaal soon, man.) |via SergioLeoneIFR|

Eminem teaming up with Sons of Anarchy creator to play a boxer. Kurt Sutter’s Southpaw will star Eminem in a boxing movie which will be a metaphor for his career. “…because his own life has been a brawl.”  After Marky Mark’s The Fighter and Channing Tatum’s Fighting, the crazy thing is that the fighting movie with Eminem might actually be the least wigger-y.|Deadline|

Dino De Laurentiis Co. remaking 1984′s Firestarter. Hoping to start a new franchise, the company is expected to reimagine the little girl who can set fires with her mind from the Stephen King book with “more edge.”  Oh, so Chris Evans as The Human Torch wasn’t “edgy” enough for you, assh*les?  Good thing they’re remaking these, it’s not like Stephen King has a lot of books to choose from. |Variety|

Paul Rudd is lookin’ good, braaaah…

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