Perhaps the most significant failure occured during an opening-weekend screening of "Days Of Thunder" in Corte Madera, California. Now, call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, but Corte Madera is just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. San Francisco is the U.S. headquarters of Dolby Labs. You can figure out the rest...
Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 03-08-2006, 05:39 AM:
I bet the helicopters are blasting Mike's house with searchlights right now.
Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 04-16-2006, 03:33 PM:
I managed to catch JAWS on a spring break trip to Denver and had a blast. Here's a review (SPOILERS):
The SERIES:
They are doing an awesome job promoting their "Flashback Features" series. There are posters in the lobby that detail the series and call out the fact that it's on a "Giant Screen." There was a one-sheet for an upcoming flim (ALIEN) and they even had an official auditorium lable for JAWS.
They had a nicely done video showcasing the series before the film. I hope they are showing this video before their regular features as well.
The manager spoke beforehand and said that the series has been a huge success. He outlined the fall series. (GOONIES, BACK TO THE FUTURE, A MONTY PYTHON, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, TEMPLE OF DOOM, STAR TREK 3, and several others.) He also invited the audience to vote in the lobby for a final choice, between 3 nominees.)
There was a large crowd. I'm not great at estimates, but I'd say more than 500 people. I heard the manager comment afterwards that RAIDERS was still their biggest hit. The crowd was well behaved and added to the experience.
The PRINT:
The print was terrific. There were a few specs of dirt at the reel changes and a thin black line for a few minutes, but overall, I was very pleased.
It was not based on the 25th Anniversary DVD, which had altered sound effects. In fact, the Universal Logos & old theme park ad at the end made it seem like it was struck from the 1975 negative.
The sound was the original Mono.
The PESENTATION:
The image was bright, sharply focused and steady, which is always impressive on such a giant screen.
On the downside, the image was too big. It was projected past the edges of the screen. This was especially bad at the top, and drew attention to the fact that Spielberg & Butler really used the top of the frame. In several scenes, the tops of heads were cut off (and projected on the masking).
Additionally, the sound was too loud. It was shrill & distorted at times, and had my ears ringing. It may have been that they were trying to make up for the Mono mix and fill such a large room, but it was disappointing. I was sitting 7th row center; I can't say how it sounded farther back.
The FILM:
Jaws really stood up. The audience seemed to have a great time, laughing at lots of great lines from Quint and Hooper, and shrieking at the movie's biggest scares.
Quint's death got a big reaction; I heard gasps from people around me. I believe if you watch the scene on a small screen, your eyes take everything in at once and the phoniness of the mechanical shark is unavoidable. But on a giant screen, the image is overwhelming. Your eyes move around to take in different details, and the net result is much more impactful.
All in all, I had a great time. I wish there were more great screens like the big one at the Continental, and I wish the ones that do still exist would run series like this one.
Geoff
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 04-16-2006, 10:22 PM:
JAWS is the perfect big screen movie and deserves its classic status. I'd love to see it on the big screen again. You are right, TV does not do it justice.
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 02-18-2009, 09:06 PM:
It has been 1038 days since the last post.
Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-18-2009, 09:06 PM: