Quote:
I currently own:
T-Rex - Back to the Cretaceous
|
You have my sympathies.
I work in an IMAX theater, so I've seen a good number of these films. However, the only one I own on DVD is "Mysteries of Egypt" just because I really like the score and film itself - but the disc I have is a horrid transfer, but maybe there's a better one out by now, I have no idea.
Generally speaking, any McGillivray Freeman film is worth the price of admission. The McGillivray films I've seen are:
Dolphins
Journey Into Amazing Caves
Everest
I love them all, with Dolphins and Caves besting Everest for me just because they're a bit more science oriented, but Everest really is a pretty thrilling documentary kind of film. Dolphins and Caves are like a couple of films I talk about below - you probably won't really learn anything new - but the Freeman films are so well made and engaging, regardless of how much you might know about the subject beforehand, I feel at least these three are must buys if you are looking for IMAX films on DVD.
Some of the other IMAX films I've seen (most of them over 50 times each!!), and my comments follow (please note I won't be commenting on quality of DVD transfer or sound since, as I said, I only own "Mysteries of Egypt" on DVD).
Lost Worlds: Life in the Balance: I remember really liking some of the later scenery, and this one fly-through of a sewer that had some great surround in the IMAX theater, who knows how well it would work on a smaller, non-dome screen.
Mysteries of Egypt: As I said, I like the mood of it and the score, but you're not going to learn anything really new about Egypt from it. This is hard for me to give a yay or nay to, as it does have kind of sentimental value for me since it was the first IMAX film I ever saw
Amazing Journeys: Ehhh, definately on the bottom of my list, shows a bunch of migratory behavior of a variety of species. I felt it was clunky, both technically and thematically.
Africa: The Serengeti : Watching it at home this is probably no better than seeing any other Discovery Channel special on Africa. The main thrill with the show were the massive herd shots and how they played on the huge IMAX screen, which is probably lost at home.
Super Speedway: I hate racing (NASCAR anyway) and I really liked this film (I do hate the new NASCAR Imax film by the way). Some good science showing the engineering behind the cars and everything. The DVD release of this is very good too - though I'm not sure how they handled the OAR as apparently it is a widescreen DVD. (EDIT: I don't know why I confused this movie initially, anyway, the title's right now!)
Thrill Ride: Like the Africa movie, nothing you don't already know (and is probably a little dated information-wise at this point), and the main thrill of the film were some roller-coaster and ride footage from a 1st person perspective being played on the huge screen.
