Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 40 Days & 40 Nights

This is topic 40 Days & 40 Nights in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-23-2002, 02:13 AM:

This one is pretty fun. Anyone expecting a serious movie will be disappointed. The premise is simple, our "hero" can't get his mind off of his ex-girlfriend, so he decides to abstain from sex in every way shape and form for 40 days from a Biblical reference. Of course as Hollywood would have it, he meets up with a girl he falls in love with and finds his vow constantly getting harder. (Pun intended.) In the meantime everyone else is making bets on when he will explode. (Another pun intended.) Fairly predictable throughout, but it's the little side jokes that make it all worthwhile.

I don't want to say too much more about the story, because trailers give far too much away as it is, but I do want to make some comments on the technical side of this production. Picture...excellent! This is a flat film and I can't remember the last time I saw a flat film that was quite so sharp, had such rich colors, coupled with very well executed lighting and camerawork. On the audio side of the show, while this kind of movie doesn't lend itself to "showing off" sound mixing, it was a very crisp, clean, warm and rich track throughout. An excellent example of first rate sound mixing on a film that one would not normally expect great sound from. One final comment is that the print, while made at Deluxe Hollywood, was OUTSTANDING! Not one single glitch in either the picture or sound was noticed. The registration was rock steady, and there wasn't even a lab splice! Finally, two big thumbs up to Deluxe Hollywood for delivering the kind of quality that all printing should be. Keep up this kind of quality guys and we'll all stop complaining!

So overall, the movie sounds stupid, right? Sure it does. But this one is fun, simple, and at times even a little bit silly, but chipper nevertheless. Check it out.

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-03-2002, 10:25 PM:

Attendance: 2002/03/03 19:15, Regal River Oaks Cinema 8, Decatur, AL, Auditorium 6, DTS, Flat

This was an enjoyable movie. Brad pretty well summed it up with his review. One scene that was a bit ridiculous me a bit was when Matt's shirt sleeve caught fire. It was on fire long enough (20 to 30 seconds) that his arm would have been badly burned, especially the way he was flinging it around. As Hollywood would have it, he was OK. Sometimes, a fire gag is funny, but this one didn't seem to add any humor to the scene and seemed unnecessary.

The movie wasn't quite as funny as I'd hoped. Part of that might be due to me, since I've never had a girlfriend and don't relate to the style of having a bunch of quick relationships with a bunch of different girls all the time. If I can at least partially put myself in the place of the character, it helps.

Still, I think most people will enjoy this one. Only a couple of dozen people came to this Sunday night showing, which was less than I expected. This movie was in this theatre's largest auditorium. I hope more people than this went to some of the other movies at this theatre. The presentation was perfect.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site

Posted by Don Anderson (Member # 397) on 03-05-2002, 06:37 PM:

I really liked this film. Sure, its been done before. But, lots of laughs, and a great soundtrack. But wait, no soundtrack is available on cd? What gives? We attempted to watch the closing credits for track listings. But, seems the staff wanted to clean the auditorium and turned on all overhead lights. Washed out everything, but the black scratches on the print. Ugh, one day after it opens and the competition already trashed the print. Needless to say that the surround operated, but speakers behind the screen were dead thru most of the feature.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-05-2002, 06:51 PM:

"speakers behind the screen were dead thru most of the feature"

Must have made it kind of hard to follow what was going on. ?? Evans, what kind of deduction would that flaw rate on your scale?

Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 03-06-2002, 11:23 AM:

quote:
"speakers behind the screen were dead thru most of the feature"
Must have made it kind of hard to follow what was going on. ?? Evans, what kind of deduction would that flaw rate on your scale?

It depends on how distracting it was. Seriously, if all the dialog is coming from the surrounds, and it's undistorted, it may be a 3 to 5 point deduction, depending on the specific movie and the distraction factor. If the audio were also distorted, then it's 5 to 10 points, depending on severity. If the dialog were difficult to understand, then it's at least 10 points or maybe much more, depending on severity.

Back to the movie topic:

Several days after seeing this movie, I've thought about it and decided that it's one of those "borderline" cases. I can't decide if I'd want to see the movie again, which means there is about a 50 percent chance that I'll buy the DVD when it comes out. It was a funny movie, but there have been many other comedies that I've enjoyed more.

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Evans A Criswell
Huntsville-Decatur Movie Theatre Information Site