Great Movie THEATER experience (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

As something of a counterpoint to the "I hate movie theaters" threads, I wanted to relate a GREAT movie theater experience I had on Sunday. It was at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences theater. I saw xXx there. Two things made it an outstanding experience. First of all, the crowd was mature, respectful, and quiet. Secondly, essentially NONE of the usual complaints about film quality were present. There was no noticeable film grain, no scratches (except for a momentary blotch towards the end), no sound dropouts, etc. Illumination and black levels were SUPERB (the theater has DARK sidewalls and a BLACK ceiling). The sound was superb. It was obvious that the film was being played at REFERENCE level, and NO one could have possibly complained that the surrounds or the bass were too weak. The SLAM and the overall sound quality were as good as I've EVER heard.

During the projection booth tour of the new Cinerama Dome complex, I was very pleased to see the good maintenance procedures for the projectors. This gives me confidence about future viewings there.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: When a movie theater does it RIGHT, NO home video system can POSSIBLY match it, no matter how much one tries to think otherwise (and I say this as a High End home theater owner).

 

[Andrew_Sch]

Robert, reading your post, I thought you could have just as well have been talking about the Senator. As much as I can't stand most chain theaters, I love the Senator twice as much as I loathe them.

 

[Neil M]

I had a similar experience when i saw XXX. There was one part where some kids were loud but overall it was a good experience. The sound was definitely reference level. It was the loudest and clearest soundng movie i've ever been to. It is good to know that it is still possible to enjoy the movies in a regular movie theater with a bunch of people.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Robert: You just enjoyed the town's reference theater. Meanwhile, you've only whetted my appetite for that movie screening at the other theater you mentioned next month. Whoa, man. JB

 

[Andrew Chong]

Yes, we have all had bad movie theatre experiences as well as good, hopefully more of the latter.

A good experience that stands out for me was when I had the opportunity to see 'Twister' at Toronto's Uptown the Saturday after it opened. The crowd in attendance was also mature and thoroughly engrossed in the film. The image was excellent and the theatre was comfortably air conditioned and ventilated on that hot summer day.

Now the dts sound. Wow!!! All the surround effects were incredibly realized, the high frequencies were scintillating and you could feel the theatre seem to rumble during the movie's showpieces.

Whenever I play the dts version of the dvd, I fondly remember that movie theatre experience.