Downton Abbey-; The Grand Finale

[Terry Monohan]

Our movie group in the Santa Cruz CA area have been waiting for a long time to this new and supposedly last movie made of ' Downton Abbey'. Shown on the largest curved true scope screen in the area at the Cinelux Capitola Cinema. . Frist show was Thursday Sept 11 at 2 PM in cinema Film-Tech Forums

Now up to the 1930's the film was well liked by all of our picky film friends. What was strange as with many movies these days some of the indoor segments were shot way to dark. The outdoor segments had great crisp bright color. At first I had thought the projector bulb was turned way to low or ready to die out. I don't recommend seeing the new 'Downtown' at a drive In.

The music was nice but they did not use the side/back wall speakers much except in the part at the outdoor fair when a microphone had a echo effect around you and a few other surround sound segments.

Great ending with past clips in a dream mode set up, People leave when the credits roil and they miss some great photo segments from the film.

I bet even though they say this will the last movie from the series more will be written in the future as not everyone has left the castle and they leave you wondering what will happen in the late 30's 40's.

The New 'Downton' 2025 movie will bring in all the older movie folks that loved the PBS TV years plus the last two cinema films. Lets hope another few movies will be made to keep this great story going.

[Jim Cassedy]

Haven't seen the movie, and probably won't have the time to watch it, but I did see the two
previous ones, and enjoyed them both. My venue is having some sort of "Downton Abbey
Dress Up Party/Screening" tonight, which involves a live host and I think there's a prize for
the best costume(s). Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on you point of view) I'm
already running two other events today, and this is the one that I'll have the least time to
pay attention to. This is going to be a helluva week. . . I've got several simultaneous
overlapping events that I've got to orchestrate.

[Mark Ogden]

They really went for the Barry Lyndon look for this picture, it's one of the darkest damn movies I've seen in a while. Most of the interiors look like they were shot with 1930s period-level available light. I was almost going to walk when a daylight exterior appeared, showing that the projector brightness was at least adequate and revealing the intentions of the D.P. and colorist.

That having been said, if you were a Downton fan from the beginning it's worth a ticket to see how the whole thing wraps up, even though the plot here isn't that compelling. If you are new to the story, this is not a good place to start, you really need to have had an investment in the characters and the complicated backstory to understand who's who and what's happening. I think Downton Abbey is one of the best things that has ever appeared on television (and I like The Gilded Age as well), so it was an obvious Cheap Tuesday matinee for me, and I liked it.

[Jim Cassedy]

I just thought I'd add a quick photo from the sold out "Downton Abbey Dress-Up"
show we had last Saturday night. There were trivia & a costume contests & prizes.
Here are some of the costumed contestants strutting their stuff on stage. A Fun Night!
DowntonDressUp.jpg