Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Theatre Reviews; Southern AZ

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 06-24-2002, 08:17 PM:

Following Evan's example

, I will start posting theatre reviews whenever I go to see a "flic". I will be unbiased,impartial, and honest in my reviews. So here goes:

Sat., June 22, 2002. Star Wars EP II. Century Park Place 20. Tucson, AZ. 8 p.m. show screen #15. All THX Theatre all digital sound. (not sure what sound-system is on this screen). Christie Package. Very slight overshoots w/no shadows. Actually, this theatre has some of the best aperture plate fitting around Tucson. Other than some very light platter roller scratches on the right side of screen towards the middle of the presentation, print was VERY clean! Film WAS NOT run in digital sound and it seemed that there was no attempt to rectify the problem. All sound seemed to come from screen speakers...no surround was evident. This theatre is all stadium seating, and the aisle where I sat did not have reclining seats, which was somewhat uncomfortable! Towards the middle of the film, three DISRUPTIVE teenagers burst into the auditorium yelling and screaming that "THERE IS A LOOSE FANDANGO RUNNING LOOSE IN THE BUILDING!" before they bolted out of the screen exit. I immediately went to get management who told me that the problem was being looked into...Although I did get an apology from Century Theatres Management, no offer of compensation was given for this interuption or the lack of quality sound. As I was leaving the theatre, I felt that I had the right to demand a refund, or some type of compensation, so I asked the kids at the box office to contact the GM for me, or the senior manager on duty. These kids were rude and made no attempt to assist their customer!

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 06-24-2002, 08:40 PM:

Was the sound quality actually _bad_ or was it just not digital? Did the theatre advertise that the feature was to be shown in digital (e.g. a lobby sign or format trailer)?

If the sound quality was acceptible, I can't really see any reason for them to provide a refund _unless_ they specifically advertised that the film would be shown with digital sound. I would even tend to say that the advertisement would have to be _within_ the theatre, as newspaper ads almost always get the sound format wrong, prints get moved, equipment breaks, etc.

I'm not trying to defend "film done wrong," but I do feel that digital sound is more of a "nice to have" than a "must have" feature, but good quality sound (regardless of format--even if mono) is an absolute requirement.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-24-2002, 08:50 PM:

Around here, Regal & Cinemark ads say "All Digital Sound", so that's what I expect. If it's not playing in digital, I let them know that a customer [me] noticed. Once it was "Kate & Leopold" playing in a DTS-only house but they didn't have the DTS discs (due to the last-minute edits made by Miramax). The obvious question was "Why don't you move it to an SR-D house?"

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-24-2002, 08:56 PM:

David, you've got to watch the way some theaters do that advertising. The whole "digital sound in every auditorium" doesn't really offer much when you think about it. All they are saying is that there is some form of digital in every house. Let's say it's a 10 plex and they have 1 SRD, 1 DTS, 6 SDDS and 2 CDS. Well right off of the bat 2 of those auditoriums are going to be forever playing in analog. Also, with as many films come out today without an SDDS track or missing DTS discs, it's just not going to happen...unless the management cares enough to move things around, which is rare. Even at that, I did a TAP report at the AMC Grand a few years back and the movie was clearly not running in digital. After the show I was to check in with the manager and explain any problems I encountered, which I noted the film was not playing in digital. A call to the booth brought the projectionist down who said "only 2 of our units are actually working". (This is a 24 plex!) Technically though, they do "have digital sound in every theater". It's just not functional, that's all. (Disclaimer: their situation has probably/hopefully been fixed by now.)

I know of one local theater that advertised "Dolby Digital sound" on their marquee forever. The owner bought copies of digital sound logos from a projectionist at a nearby Cinemark theater and ran them before the show. He was running his movies on a piss poor sound system with a Dolby CP50 (no SR cards either) and what I think was homemade speakers. What was his reasoning? "Well I have a Dolby processor and I have digital sound." The obvious response is "no you DON'T have digital sound." He of course replies, "yes I do. See the cd player? I play my intermission music from a cd, which is digital, so I can legally advertise Dolby digital sound in my theater."

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 06-24-2002, 09:01 PM:

This is a one year old theatre that was part of the renovation of one of the major shopping malls in Tucson. Century Park Place 20 is ALL THX, ALL STADIUM SEATING, ALL DIGITAL...! FILM was to be shown in digital. In short, this is a brand new state of the art theatre.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 06-24-2002, 09:05 PM:

Being familiar with the local first-run theaters, I know they should be able to play in digital 99% of the time. Regal has DTS & SR-D in all 8 houses (and 2 rollaround SDDS racks). Cinemark is about evenly split between DTS & SR-D. They can almost always run digital. Of course the situation at other theaters may be different. And of course some theaters probably deliberately mislead.

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 07-17-2002, 08:47 PM:

Century Park Place 20; Spider Man; auditorium 6; 10:35p.m.; Sat. 6 July, 2002; Stadium Seating; Digital Sound...system unknown; Christie Package.

For some reason, the hallway leading to this auditorium, which included passing restrooms and a satellite concession stand, to me, smelled like vomit! VERY DISPLEASING!

intermission slide presentation not centered on screen.

Not every row in this auditorium has reclining seats. This just so happened to be on one of the rows, which for me personally, is the "ideal" comfort zone and viewing position for me! VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!

Print was very clean...slight shadow on top screen border.

Show did play in digital , but I am unsure of the format on that screen. After the show, I did ask some floor staff what system was on that screen. They could have very easily found out with minimal effort, but instead were clueless, made no effort to provide requested info and proceeded to try to blow smoke up my backside...VERY POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 07-17-2002, 08:50 PM:

Road To Predition; Century Park Place 20, Tucson AZ; Auditorium #2; Christie Package, DTS, Stadium Seating, Curved Screen; 4:50 p.m. Sunday July 14, 2002.

Need to complete-edit later....