The last movie Aimee and I went to was, I think, Inside Man back in March/April. Our absence from theaters was based on our terrible luck: sitting by people who talked, the movie starting very late, cold theaters, poor overall customer service.
We took a chance today and saw The Departed at the Cobblestone 9. No big problems with the audience, but the movie started about 15 minutes late- and we missed the very first part of the movie. I shouldn't say we missed it entirely because we heard it. We just didn't see it. Black screen with the sounds of the tide coming in and out. After another 10 minutes, they finally got it going- although it was a little jarring trying to get into a quickly paced movie without the usual credits at the beginning, which sort of puts your mind into first gear for movie watching.
I noticed right away that the film looked... different. Crisp. Bright. It was a small screen, so at first I thought it might have just been a new print combined with a small screen size, compressing the resolution. I didn't think about it too much for the rest of the movie- one thing I did notice was an occasional "swirling" of the colors in small patches. Hard to describe, but it didn't really look "digital" in any way, so I thought it might be more of a chemical problem when the film was developed.
As it turns out, we were watching a digital projection. Texas Instruments DLP to be exact.
I was pretty impressed. I bet there are a lot of advantages besides distributors saving money on prints. One big downside might be what we encountered- projectionists not being able to run the digital projectors. When the film was delayed tonight, an usher said they had to "call the technician."
Anyway- the movie was pretty good overall, except for some story problems toward the end. But I won't ruin anything. Anyone else have any good or bad digital projection experience?
Posted by alangage at October 22, 2006 06:55 PM
Comments
Nothing but good experiences for me. I've been to three DLPs at Wynnsong and enjoyed every one. The Departed is an awesome movie. Especially when Martin Sheen has to cut off his own hand while Nicholson is holding the gun to his head. One of the best Scorsese moments ever.
Posted by: siskow at October 23, 2006 04:18 PM
What about the scene where it turns out Matt Damon is a Keyser Soze. And a woman.
Posted by: Andy at October 23, 2006 06:04 PM
(SPOILERS) Andy, do you know why Mark Wahlberg's character would shoot Martin Sheen's character when he was a good guy? Wasn't Wahlberg good, or was he actually bad? I thought DiCaprio and Damon's really fake-looking love scene kind of explained that...but then the bit with the puppets kind of threw me off and made me think Sheen might actually try to kill Nicholson. A little confusing but I think it's up to the viewer.
Posted by: siskow at October 24, 2006 09:16 AM
Dru and I saw Superman Returns in digital. I noticed a bit of banding in the picture, mostly when the screen was very bright. It also made the last 15 minutes of the movie feel slow and kind of silly.
Posted by: Dan at October 24, 2006 01:01 PM
I think the scene where Martin Sheen has to kill a CG Marlon Brando sort of gave it away. The fact that DiCaprio could see dead people might explain the Wahlberg thing. Donnie Wahlberg, that is. And "The Departed" is the name of the sled at the end? That's been done.
Posted by: Andy at October 24, 2006 01:11 PM
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