Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Sing

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Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 12-28-2016, 08:27 PM:

Theater: Pacific Sherman Oaks 5, Sherman Oaks, CA
Screen: 1
Presentation: 35mm flat, Dolby Digital
Presentation plusses: Film is beautiful and this is a lovely print. Common-height masking is used, so we sat close. The digital sound was actually working. It could've been brighter but was quite decent.

Presentation minuses: the screen is crap, with small seam splits in 2 places, plus damage markings. Volume too low. No bass to speak of. I wanna hear this in ATMOS! But the novelty of seeing this on film was worth it.
Presentation rating: 2 of 4 stars; film is lovely, but this is not film at it's best (though no scratches is a plus).
Movie rating: 3 of 4 stars, surprisingly

Plot summary: producer and theatre owner Buster Moon tries to save his bad fortunes by staging a singing competition starring local amateur talents. You-know-what ensues.

This movie is the follow-on to Illumination's "Secret Life of Pets," and not only does it again star all manner of animals, but the levels of detail they've gone to with their animation struck me at times as being astounding. (We used to get that feeling only from Disney or Pixar, but the playing field is now, as you know, much larger.) While it takes awhile for the plot momentum to get going, it's never really slow, and there are laugh-out-loud moments. Better still, in this age of persistently non-musical musicians or injection-molded Radio Disney "kid hits," I found the sound track to be very, very smart. Not only are few songs around long enough to become annoying, their production values are so smart and the song choices and placement so deftly handled that I'd dare say that the whole is satisfyingly greater than the sum of its parts. The plot? Sure, you know there's going to be a happy ending, and there are some other predictabilities. However, the process of getting there was so memorable and musical that we found ourselves enjoying some of the moments of triumph with goosebumps.

Call me an old sap, or because I'm a musician, unfairly biased. But I'm a classically-trained musician, and the pop music (and a few famous classical nuggets) in this soundtrack struck me as providing a something-for-everyone experience.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 12-29-2016, 04:36 PM:

What a wonderful movie! I enjoyed absolutely every minute of it.

The best character is the "Frank Sinatra" mouse; everything from his singing to his snappy suit to his attitude is just an absolute hoot! "A penny? Hey you!"

This is one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while.

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 12-31-2016, 07:31 PM:

Theater: Universal Citywalk AMC, Universal City, CA
Screen: 13
Presentation: 2K movie, Christie Laser, 2D on a dual-head 3D projector. Immersive sound speakers everywhere but we never noticed them being used (not that they weren't, but nothing localized clearly enough for us to be sure that they were on). Common-width room. (They probably all are.)

Presentation plusses: Love the color and contrast range of this technology. I've been saying for awhile that Laser is what will finally get me to stop missing film, and this looked really, really good. The screen is flawless. The masking was flawless. The recliners were comfy. This cineplex remodel is enviable; I went to this place when it was new in 1987 and the quality and expense of the upgrade is impressive.

Presentation minuses: it actually could've been louder! The bass from screen 12 next door playing "Rogue One" was often obviously bleeding through the wall, typically louder than the bass from our screen. The trailers were nicely loud. The feature wasn't. The bottom 3% of the left half of the picture was dimmer than the rest because the bottom imager of the projector wasn't high enough for the edge to clear the port window. Sloppy install. Laser sparkles and therefore doesn't look as smooth as film. The bottom left portion of the image was not as sharp as the rest, which was otherwise lovely.

Presentation rating: 3.5 of 4 stars; I really wanted the sound to amaze me and it didn't; window misalignment is just stupid.

Considering that my local dim-bulb Edwards is $14 for a prime-time show and this is half again as much, I suppose you get what you pay for. Flaws and all, this absolutely blew Edwards away in every way. As it should.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 01-05-2017, 04:28 PM:

^ how was the audio/soundmix Bill?

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 01-05-2017, 08:07 PM:

Jonathan, I'm not honestly sure. The production side was innovative and pleasing, to be certain. However, I wasn't blown away by the mix, and I don't know if it's the venues or the movie. The 35mm screen has a 25-year-old 5.1 system likely in need of a tune-up and definitely a volume boost, and AMC's immersive speakers and general timbre didn't amount to anything special.

Anyone else hear Sing in a good theater? Or will I have to wait for a home video release to know?

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 01-05-2017, 10:05 PM:

I actually plan on seeing this, next week when Arclight (Bethesda) finally puts it on their Atmos equipped screen - I was just trying to hear what others thought of the sound - I liked how in 'The Secret Lives of Pets' the Atmos mix really was fun and creative, notably the scene where you can hear the squirrels teasing the dogs up and over our heads.

Posted by Bill Brandenstein (Member # 7758) on 01-10-2017, 11:12 AM:

Please keep us posted. That could be really helpful!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-01-2017, 03:39 PM:

"Sing" was a nice movie and had a lot of good music, but I was a little underwhelmed by it -- there wasn't really any suspense to the story or any doubt about how it would end, and the big ending production seemed to go on forever. But the crowds are loving it and it's done well for us.

The musical choices were spot-on for the most part. Some great surprises and some more obvious picks. The only song I didn't like was the ending version of Stevie Wonder's great tune, "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing," which starts out promisingly but by the end of the song, the vocalist (Tori Kelly) is in full Whitney-Houston-style bellowing mode and ruins it.

2 out of 5 for me.

Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 02-04-2017, 01:00 AM:

I was quite wowed by this flick! Wet eyes, goosebumps, laughs, it had it all. Worth seeing more than once.