I've caught three films on this trip. Quick summaries only.
I was at the Bellingham Regal Theater on opening night for Red Eye. I didn't expect much going in, but was pleasantly surprised. It was goofy in parts, but overall very enjoyable for a thriller. Wes Craven did an excellent job.
Next we saw Charlie at the IMAX in Natick. Wow, it was great on the big, big screen. I think when I originally saw it it must have been a DLP digital projection, because I remember some digital artifacts and generally flatness of the images. The 70mm print was superb.
Finally, I caught War of the Worlds last night at the soon-to-be-closed Cinema Zeotrope. I was truly shocked and disturbed by some of the images. I actually really liked the dynamic, handheld camerawork towards the beginning of the film, coupled with a complete lack of score, it was very gritty. However, the whole film seemed pieced together and disjointed. Later, Speilberg would revert to his classic camera angles, and it seemed out of place. I'm thinking especially of the shots (twice) through holes in vehicle windsheilds, and especially the alien POV looking down at Dakota. I just stood out as a very different perspective than we had seen thus far. Tim Robbins was horrible, and the cat-and-mouse with the probe gag got old real fast, only to be repeated immediately with the aliens directly. Overall, I enjoyed it and it was very devestating in parts.
4 comments:
Interesting.
There's actually only one DLP projector in the whole valley - Harkins Arrowhead. Unless you saw it there, I think the theater had a bad print.
Yeh, could have been. What I was seeing was distinctive dark blue blocks in shadows. Looked like digital video or digital projection artifacts. I think it was theater 15 or 16 at Derr Valley 30.
It was strange, but everything looked awesome in IMAX. And the preview of Nascar 3D (as much as I am disinterested in auto racing) blew my mind. I haven't seen an IMAX 3D yet. It was like seeing HD for the first time, but a hundred times better.
Oh, and I don't think Tim Robbins was horrible in War of the Worlds. He was very believable. The character, however, was horrible, as in really lame.
I agree that my largest problem with Tim Robbins resulted, not from his acting, but rather the way his character was written. I think he was simply doing the absolute best he could with what he was given.
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