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Author Topic: Monster House (2006) Matt Fields Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 545 From: Ohio, United States Registered: Jun 2005 posted 07-21-2006 12:25 AM                     This was a fairly good movie, but I'll tell ya, it's extremely dark for a kids flick. Little kids will be scared. Had some decent jokes and I liked how the 2 guys try to impress the girl. 2.5 stars out of 5.  |  IP: Logged Don Anderson Master Film Handler Posts: 312 From: West Bend, WI, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 07-21-2006 01:34 AM                     I totally agree. Any parent that would take any kid under the age of 8 to this needs to have their head examined. Terribly frightening stuff, the old man from the house is enough to give anyone nightmares. Watch for the product placement, its bouncing around. Note that the Mountain Dew 20oz bottle has no label on it, see the movie and you'll know why. How did this ever get a PG rating??? Maybe, because the F word wasn't used? I can only imagine how many parents will be leaving the theatre with their small children, after about 25 minutes of the film. Cute storyline, awesome CGI, but....marketed to the wrong age bracket.  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-21-2006 01:55 AM                        Yeah. This has the Babe Pig In the City problem: a bit too dark for kids. LOVED how the house looked. Very sharp. Wish I could see it in 3-D. Though I must say, it did have a 3-D effect anyway. All in all I really liked it and if I had a penis, I'd pee in bottles as well.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-21-2006 03:52 PM                        Today 7/21/2006, 12:40PM, Cinemark 17 in Springfield, House #8, presented in DLP & Real D 3D. This is a presentation review since I only saw about 10 mins. of the feature. The screen in this theater is common-width with top masking. Screen is about 40' wide and flat (meaning not curved). I was sitting dead-center and around 2 screen heights back. I tried to identify the make of DLP projector, but the booth was pitch dark so I couldn't see anything clearly. All the FirstLook preshow stuff was projected "flat" with the masking set to "scope" so roughly 1/3 of the image was on the top masking. Nice. I go tell someone, and they already know. "This is a new system and we're still working out the bugs". The sound abruptly cut off in the middle of the last ad (Coke). "Put on your 3D Glasses". Check. The image looks, umm, how can I put this. WRONG. There is kinda-sorta some 3D to it, but it mostly looks blurry and WRONG. Maybe the feature will look better. Feature starts, and it still looks WRONG. On a hunch, I turn my glasses upside down, and presto changeo, the image looks RIGHT. I try this several times and there's no doubt that the glasses have to be upside down to get the proper 3D effect. I go tell someone. They send in a girl who looks about 15. I tell her to try turning the glasses upside down. She does, going back and forth several times, and declares "You're right, it looks way better with the glasses upside down". We try another pair of glasses with the same result. She then says "Our booth person is gone right now and anyway we're under strict orders not to touch any settings on the projector." I got a refund and left. The other 75 or so paying customers will leave wondering why the Digital 3D show they paid a $1.50 premium for looks so ordinary, if not outright bad. They will tell their friends, and so on. It's unbelievable that A) The installer(s) apparently got this wrong, and B) The staff hasn't been trained to recognize how the 3D image is SUPPOSED to look. And besides all that, the screen is very noticeably hotspotting, brighter in the center with dramatic falloff on the sides. And it seemed like the overall illumination was just barely adequate, in fact, probably not bright enough. I give my first D-Cinema show, and Cinemark #235's current implementation of Real D, an F.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 07-21-2006 08:27 PM                        So - why didn't you just watch the movie with the glasses on upside down? Just Kidding. This proves a point: The image on the screen can only be as good as the operator/tech involved in the presentation. So I think that Digital Cinema may not be the director's answer to a flawless presentation. Murphy's Law will always be in effect. When we convert to Digital we will still need good people in the booth, even smarter people. Hmmm, did I just say that? quote: David Stambaugh She then says "Our booth person is gone right now and anyway we're under strict orders not to touch any settings on the projector." Well, that says it all right there. Where was he/she - out to friggin lunch?  |  IP: Logged Michael Coate Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1904 From: Los Angeles, California Registered: Feb 2001 posted 07-21-2006 08:33 PM                     quote: Allison Parsons Wish I could see it in 3-D. Why can't/didn't you? It's playing in 3D at the Rave Grand Prairie 18. Isn't that theater within a few miles of you? Or does Rave not provide comps to employees from a competitor? (I once worked at a UA and an AMC was right across the street; each theater allowed employee comp admission from one another.)  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-21-2006 09:22 PM                        I considered staying with the glasses on upside-down, but it was very uncomfortable and there was no way I could have made it through 90 minutes like that. Beside, it's the principle of the thing! What I really wanted to do is yell out in the theater "You people are all getting screwed and should demand a refund!" But I didn't.  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-21-2006 10:47 PM                        quote: Michael Coate It's playing in 3D at the Rave Grand Prairie 18. Michael, I JUST found that out about 2 hours ago! Might help if I looked in the newspaper more often... I don't think that they provide comps from other theaters. All the managers I knew have either quit or got fired from there, so I'll have to pay. Which I don't mind because I want to see it again anyway, especially in 3-D!  |  IP: Logged Michael Coate Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1904 From: Los Angeles, California Registered: Feb 2001 posted 07-21-2006 11:28 PM                     Allison, Too bad you didn't catch this thread from Film-Yak or you could've been armed with the information a day or two sooner.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-23-2006 06:48 PM                        Today 7/23/2006, 10:05AM, Cinemark 17 in Springfield, House #8. Christie CP2000 2K DLP, Real D 3D. Attendance about 10-15. As on Friday, the FirstLook preshow was projected to completely fill the 40' common-width screen, even though it's masked for scope, so ~30% of the image was lopped off the top. The sound in the last ad (Coke) is still being abruptly cut off in the middle. All the advertisers deserve credit for generously allowing their paid presentation to be butchered like that. The 3D effect was working correctly today. No need to turn the glasses upside-down. The quality of the 3D is pretty darned good, way better than anaglyphic red/blue. Is it fun? Yes. Will I seek out other 3D shows in the future? Yes. Is it gimmicky? Sure. Would I want to see "Schindler's List 3D"? No, but thanks for asking. As I noted before, the screen illumination is noticeably uneven. Whether that's due to the silver screen or something else, I don't know. I also noticed a "splotchy" look to the screen in bright scenes, almost like water stains. Kind of distracting. The 3D glasses noticeably reduce the image brightness, so I reserve comment on the DLP brightness issue for a future non-3D show. The only live-action preview was for "Night at the Museum" and it looked pasty and very unnatural. Hope that's not the way other live-action features are gonna look on this silver screen. The sound was excellent. So having nit-picked a lot of stuff, I gotta say that overall this animated 3D feature looked pretty good, certainly acceptable if not perfect. The 3D was worth a higher ticket price. The movie itself is ok. Not for little kids though, too scary. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. [ 07-23-2006, 08:05 PM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]  |  IP: Logged Claude S. Ayakawa Film God Posts: 2738 From: Waipahu, Hawaii, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-24-2006 02:22 AM                        MONSTER HOUSE was my first opportunity to see a digital presentation today at Honolulu's Dole Cannery 18 in house #8 which is one of their larger auditorium in REAL D 3-D. I have to admit, I was totally impressed! Not only was the digital projection superb but so was the 3-D. Although it is not as good as IMAX 3-D, it was very close. All of the auditoriums at the Dole are THX certified and the sound was very impressive with good use of split surrounds. I normally do not care too much for animated films because they seem to appeal mostlyl to children but MONSTER HOUSE with it's PG rating was scary at times and very entertaining. I caught the 2nd show of the day at 1:00 pm and I was very sorry to see the house was less than half full. I know Regal spent a lot of money to present the film in Digital 3-D here in Hawaii but I think many local people did not care and saw it in 2-D at a multiplex near them. The same thing happened to Pacific's Waikiki IMAX when it had to close because of lack of support. Higher admission prices to cover the cost of the Polaroid glasses might have also turned many people off. My senior admission price at the Dole Cannery for standard films is $6.25 but I had to pay $7.75 to see MONSTER HOUSE in 3-D. It was more than I was accustomed to paying for a movie but seeing it in Digital 3-D was worth it. -Claude [ 07-24-2006, 05:40 AM: Message edited by: Claude S. Ayakawa ]  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 07-24-2006 03:22 PM                        Went to see Monster House in digital 3D yesterday at ex Famous Players/Cineplex Silver City ,Mississauga in screen 9. 3D effect pretty good but all action seemed to be behind the plane of the screen not coming out towards you as with IMAX and "film" stopped once due to power outages during thunderstorm. Illumination of screen seeemed uniform and bright. Odd they were screening this in one of the smaller theatres. Similar to David's experience the video pre-show spilled over top black masking and sound on that portion of that show was apalling Interestingly although kids and adults get the same glasses the adult premium is $2 and the kid's premium $1.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 07-24-2006 04:04 PM                        Dick, did none of the 3D effects seem to pop "out" of the screen? I saw lots of that. In the 3D trailer for the "Nightmare Before Christmas 3D" some of the snowflakes seemed so close you could reach out and grab them. Is it possible they had the 3D "out of phase" or whatever? What you're describing kind of sounds like what I saw at the first show, where the glasses had to be worn upside-down to get the correct 3D effect. Claude, did you notice any issues with illumination not being uniform, or any "water spots" on the silver screen? (sorry if this is turning chatty)  |  IP: Logged Dick Vaughan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1032 From: Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK Registered: Jul 2000 posted 07-24-2006 06:21 PM                        There was a bit of that with the snowflakes but not to the same degree that we get with IMAX. I tried the upside down trick much to the amusement of the little kid sat next to me then realised I should have turned the glasses over and not stood on my head while leaving the glasses upright No seriously when I tried them up side down the backgrounds showed up forward of the foreground action so therefore phase was ok.  |  IP: Logged Kara Tillotson Film Handler Posts: 87 From: Manistee Mi Registered: Jul 2006 posted 07-24-2006 08:54 PM                        I enjoyed the film....great humor, but definitly a little to scary for kids...but isnt it like PG or something? We hope to get the 3D thing going soon.  |  IP: Logged

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