Cinema Reviews: Screened 8/23/07-9/1/07

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Cinema: UltraStar Flower Hill 4

Film: Resurrecting the Champ (Lurie / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 7:00pm

Visual Quality: A stunning digital presentation throughout. Standard UltraStar lack of masking on scope digitial presentations ensued, but that was to be expected.

Audio Quality: Great, 6-channel DTS sound. One blown-out amplifier was noticeable during the trailers, but was not noticeable during the film.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A.

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Cinema: LaPaloma Theatre

Film: Paris je t’ame (A Whole Boatload of Directors / 2007 / France, Liechtenstein)

Showtime: 4:00pm

Visual Quality: Not a great 35mm presentation, but it’s what one would expect of the venue. Three scratches on the print, one noticeable throughout and two very mild. The film was dirty in certain parts.

Audio Quality: Quality stereo sound.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: C+.

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Cinema: Landmark Hillcrest

Film: The Ten (Wain / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 11:00am

Visual Quality: A stunning 35mm presentation throughout. Certain sections of the film near reel-changes were slightly dirty, but nothing to complain about.

Audio Quality: Great, 6-channel DTS sound.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A.

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Cinema: Regal Oceanside 16

Film: Eye of the Dolphin (Sellers / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 2:05pm

Visual Quality: A stunning 35mm presentation throughout. My only issue was that a small portion of the opening credits had been spliced out for some reason.

Audio Quality: Great, 6-channel DTS sound.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A-.

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Cinema: Landmark Hillcrest

Film: 2 Days in Paris (Delpy / 2007 / France, USA)

Showtime: 1:50pm

Visual Quality: A stunning 35mm presentation throughout. The film was slightly out-of-focus for the first ten minutes, but the projectionist was informed and fixed this problem.

Audio Quality: Good sounding Stereo sound.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A-.

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Cinema: UltraStar Mission Valley 7

Film: The 11th Hour (Connors & Connors Peterson / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 7:00pm (advanced screening)

Visual Quality: An okay 35mm presentation. The aperture plate on the projector-head was misaligned from what I could figure, resulting in two feet at the bottom of the screen being dark. The film went out of frame once due to a mis-splice at a reel-change, but this was promptly fixed by the projectionist.

Audio Quality: Great, 6-channel DTS sound.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: B.

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Cinema: UltraStar Creekside Plaza 10

Film: Sydney White (Nussbaum / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 7:00pm (advanced screening)

Visual Quality: A stunning 35mm presentation throughout. These seem to be rare at UltraStars these days, but the picture quality at this advanced screening was superb.

Audio Quality: I figure that the film was threaded slightly improperly through the soundrum of the projector, resulting in several popping noises during the first reel. However, the first reel-splice naturally put the film in its proper place, and the remainder of the film sounded fine.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A-.

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Cinema: Landmark Ken

Film: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (Gordon / 2007 / USA)

Showtime: 2:55pm

Visual Quality: A terrific 35mm presentation throughout. No visible scratches or dirt. My only complaint is that the movie skipped back by about 10 seconds in one instance where part of a reel had been changed out.

Audio Quality: Great-sounding Stereo sound throughout.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: A.

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Cinema: UltraStar Del Mar Highlands 8

Film: Mr. Bean’s Holiday (Bendelack / 2007 / UK, France, Germany)

Showtime: 4:45pm

Visual Quality: Yuck! This digital presentation was presented in scope-format despite the fact that the movie was shot in flat! The result was not a stretched-picture (as one would see in a 35mm presentation), but two black bars at the top and bottom cutting into the 1.85:1 aspect ratio of the picture. The subtitles at the bottom of the screen were often cut off because of this! I informed employees of this twice, but the problem was never corrected. The audience was never given passes for the inconvenience. Not to mention, the physical screen itself was damaged quite a bit; repairs are needed in theatre 2, folks!

Audio Quality: Great, 6-channel DTS sound. No complains here.

Audience Interruptions: None.

Overall Grade of Presentation: C-.

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Upward and onward we travel!