I'm with you on the the theater thing. I can't tell you the number of times recently where the sound has been too loud or too quiet, where people have been talking throughout the movie, where I've gotten stuck in the front row craning my neck, and/or where the movie took a half hour longer than its running time due to trailers and other commercials during the lead-in. And then the theaters blame their decline in attendance on the studios releasing their movies to DVD too soon. Please.
I gotta admit, if there was still the huge gap between movie premier and home video release, I would probably watch more movies. But given the situation where movie producers want to push the DVD out the door, cinemas have to provide a better experience.
I've good things about some Indy places that run no-kids, almost dinner-style entertainment, strange flicks, food that's not just the overpriced snack crap, etc...
testing my antispam... mother F'ers!
Well, to be fair, Burlington Cinemas is a piece of shit. You gotta go somewhere new. It's a pain to get there, but the Loews Downtown is really nice. Stadium seating which is wider and more comfortable the the old style. They even have a Starbucks concession, not that you'd go there ;-).
The commercials are annoying, especially when you get there early for good seats. Down here they've replaced the slideshows with a video projector and run full commercials at you the whole time. It's becoming harder to find a showing without ultra-loud teenagers though.
My dilemma is that I take the experience seriously, and I haven't been able to replicate it at home. So I go, but more often than not I find the audience needs a bitchslapping. Kids these days have no concept of suspension of disbelief.
Yeah, actually Fenway 13 is pretty decent.
What do you take seriously? The ritual of it, getting to see movies while they're still cultural items, or the specifics of a honking big screen and good sound system?
Yeah to Fenway.
Mr. Ibis, you need to put as much focus on the video that you put on the audio. Get a widescreen, man, get one. . .that will replicate it pretty good.
Sometimes it seems insane how big my video projector makes ordinary crappy (crappy in both content and signal quality) television...