Saw this with the family at a totally sold out 9.30a showing (at the Harkins Mountain Grove, Redlands, CA) - it was the only show today that still had seats available when my wife booked yesterday evening.
Very solid production values and good performances, especially from the veteran supporting cast of Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis and Kelsey Grammer. There are obviously some political issues that I won't get into around the movie's portrayal of the French and Indian War and colonial/class politics in the two to three decades leading up to the War of Independence. There is also something slightly ironic about the fact that the movie was shot almost entirely on location in Ireland, with a lot of the post being done in Hungary, India, and Canada, given that it's a movie about a foundational moment in American history. I did like the old school, analog approach to locations, costumes, sets, and SFX, which gave it a visual authenticity to me that wouldn't have been achieved had there been 3-4 minutes of CGI and digital post credits in the end crawl. The flattened contrast cinematography and overcast exteriors in the expedition and battle scenes were effective in conveying how much monotonous hard work interspersed with extreme danger doing that sort of thing in those days must have been.
Once again, Angel Studios threw a fundraising pitch at us during the closing credits. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to do that when everyone watching has already paid a lot to be there.
As usual, the presentation from Harkins was excellent. It was 2K (the projector looked to me like a Barco DP2K-xxC), though given the screen size and the distance I was sitting from it, 4K wouldn't have added anything for me. Scheimpflug, convergence, focus, light level and light uniformity were all excellent. The audio sounded to me well tuned and at a good level, with no dead channels or blown drivers that I could hear. The auditorium was clean and well maintained, as was the entire building, and all the staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful on what was shaping up to be the start of a busy, high pressure holiday weekend for them.
Very solid production values and good performances, especially from the veteran supporting cast of Ben Kingsley, Andy Serkis and Kelsey Grammer. There are obviously some political issues that I won't get into around the movie's portrayal of the French and Indian War and colonial/class politics in the two to three decades leading up to the War of Independence. There is also something slightly ironic about the fact that the movie was shot almost entirely on location in Ireland, with a lot of the post being done in Hungary, India, and Canada, given that it's a movie about a foundational moment in American history. I did like the old school, analog approach to locations, costumes, sets, and SFX, which gave it a visual authenticity to me that wouldn't have been achieved had there been 3-4 minutes of CGI and digital post credits in the end crawl. The flattened contrast cinematography and overcast exteriors in the expedition and battle scenes were effective in conveying how much monotonous hard work interspersed with extreme danger doing that sort of thing in those days must have been.
Once again, Angel Studios threw a fundraising pitch at us during the closing credits. I'm not sure that it's a good idea to do that when everyone watching has already paid a lot to be there.
As usual, the presentation from Harkins was excellent. It was 2K (the projector looked to me like a Barco DP2K-xxC), though given the screen size and the distance I was sitting from it, 4K wouldn't have added anything for me. Scheimpflug, convergence, focus, light level and light uniformity were all excellent. The audio sounded to me well tuned and at a good level, with no dead channels or blown drivers that I could hear. The auditorium was clean and well maintained, as was the entire building, and all the staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful on what was shaping up to be the start of a busy, high pressure holiday weekend for them.
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