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Author Topic: Ratatouille (2007) Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 06-29-2007 01:39 AM                     I can't believe I am the first to review this, but in this case I think a simple rating is suitable enough. A well deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars.  |  IP: Logged Emma Tomiak Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Carrollton, TX, USA Registered: Aug 2003 posted 06-29-2007 02:56 AM                        I agree! Being a "ratty" person, I had very high expectations, and this film did not dissapoint. I'll be seeing this one a few more times.  |  IP: Logged Michael Hossen Expert Film Handler Posts: 136 From: Perth, Australia Registered: Apr 2007 posted 06-29-2007 03:35 AM                        Glad you guys liked it. I think it looks awesome! I can't wait 'till we get it in!  |  IP: Logged Josh Rosen Film Handler Posts: 49 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canda Registered: May 2007 posted 06-29-2007 10:48 AM                    Great movie! I would give it a 5/5 I thoroughly enjoyed it, and the short at the beginning is great. I thought the sound mix was great as well.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-29-2007 04:24 PM                     The short at the beginning was worth the price of admission alone! But heck.... I didn't even have to pay... I was forced to sit though it for a sound check . I haven't seen the feature yet...... Mark  |  IP: Logged Geoff Jones Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 579 From: Broomfield, CO, USA Registered: Feb 2006 posted 06-30-2007 01:12 PM                        This is the first movie all year (not counting Jaws) that I found myself wanting to see again when I walked out, despite going in with very high expectations. Very entertaining! I hope it does well.  |  IP: Logged Sam Graham AKA: "The Evil Sam Graham". Wackiness ensues. Posts: 1431 From: Waukee, IA Registered: Dec 2004 posted 06-30-2007 04:12 PM                        CINEMA: Carmike Cobblestone 9, Urbandale, IA AUDITORIUM: 6 PRESENTATION: Christie DLP Digital PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None RATING: Three stars (out of four) FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE SHOWTIME: We arrive and the doors are locked. Random Employee hears me pulling on the door, runs out, and opens it. "Come on in." That was refreshing. There's six people in the auditorium as the show starts. We are in the third row. A family of four comes in. Where do they sit? RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! Stupid sucky people. I come here because of the LACK of people. This has to be one of the more low brow Pixar releases in some time. I don't recall seeing any television marketing for it. I was actually surprised to see it playing this weekend when looking up showtimes for the "Die Hard" movie. It's not as good or as clever as some of Pixar's previous releases (my favorite is "The Incredibles"...Wife #1's is "Monsters, Inc"), but even an average Pixar effort is better than most of the movies released thus far this year. Cripes. I'm glad we ate before we saw this thing. Tasty Tacos isn't exactly French cuisine, but their fried flour tacos are awesome.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-30-2007 04:56 PM                     Location: Megaplex Gateway Screen #1 Time: 12:15 showing Projection: DLP presentatuion... NEC projector/Dolby server. 70 foot wide matte white screen. The Gateway is still my favorite of the Megaplex theaters. You don't feel like a head of cattle as you do at Jordon Commons. Wife and I attended the 12:15 showing. Tickets and good seating readily available with little wait...BUT Concessions was another story all together with about 8 people in front of us we waited nearly 15 min.! Unacceptable! The head of concessions should be shot! Many families were bypassing the concession stand all together. When we finally got through the line there was an estimated 40 people in line. The presentation was great and the image tack sharp. Pixels were definately visible in the bright white areas as expected, no presentation problems through out the entire show and zero artifacts. Screen brightness looked to be right at spec of 14fl. Excellent picture quality that was not any where near evedent on the film print I saw some of yesterday and excellent sound mix. All in all a 4 star film and destined to be come a classic. I agree with Geoff above... its the only film I've seen since "Car's" that I want to see again. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-30-2007 08:55 PM                        I agree. While the story did get a little long before the third act, the awesome animation and attention to detail made up for it. Probably a bit "talky" for the little kiddies, but that's OK, this isn't a film for little kiddies. Pixar hits another one out of the park. The big chase scene/rainstorm near the beginning is my favorite part so far (especially when the "colony" is revealed), but the segment where Remy is trying to stay out of sight in the restaurant kitchen for the first time is close behind. Just awesome. I also really enjoyed the sound mix. Good use of surrounds, nice low end. 4.75 out of 5 from me. A quarter of a star added for not putting any "extras" at the very end. I hate it when people ask me if there are extras, and I say yes, so they wait through 10 minutes of credits, then they watch the extra and come out saying, "Well THAT wasn't so great."  |  IP: Logged Matt Fields Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 545 From: Ohio, United States Registered: Jun 2005 posted 07-01-2007 09:33 PM                     Pixar continues to put out quality time after time...while this wasn't my favorite Pixar flick, I'd still give it a solid 3 out of four stars  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 07-02-2007 03:30 PM                     Still at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes . An excellent result. Edit 07.08.07: At 96% now [ 07-08-2007, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: John Wilson ]  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 07-03-2007 08:58 AM                    Excellent movie, yet again, Pixar. Job well done. The animation that Pixar puts out is nothing short of breathtaking anymore. The sets that they create, the shots of all of the rats running in and out of a room, the scene where the rat is drifting down the sewer, and water drips on his head... wow. Take that, Dreamworks & Sony Animation. The sound mixes on Pixars movies are also always top notch, not to mention they spend the extra $$$ on the higher contrast stock. It's nice to see a company take real pride in their work. 4.75 out of 5. A great movie, and I'm looking forward to Wall-e.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 07-03-2007 02:01 PM                     Location: Carmike 8 Auditorium: #3, 10:00pm show Format: Christie DLP/Doremi Server, 2048 X 852 pixels Rating: 3.5 stars out of 4 Ratatouille is yet another very entertaining Pixar movie, and another I'll definitely add to my DVD collection (and buy again whenever I move up to the HD thing). Lots of good comedic moments. Lightning. Old lady with shotgun. Stampeding rats. Food! I thought Patton Oswalt sounded a little like Richard Dreyfuss. Peter O'Toole did an excellent job voicing food critic Anton Ego (and Pixar did a great job animating the toothy, brooding character). The only area where I thought the movie stumbled a little was late in the 2nd act where the storyline ventured into the predictable and obligatory area where characters have to get at odds with each other and risk everything going to hell. You can see that sort of thing coming from a mile away with most movies. Although the movie qualifies as G-rated fare, a good deal of the material may still be over the heads of elementary school age children. Even though some parts of the movie were predictable, I loved how it finished. During the end titles (which were also well done by the way) a piece of retro art featured the slogan "100% Real Animation. No Motion Capture." This brings up one of the major differences that separates a Pixar feature from other movies with CGI. The CGI effects in most live action movies are churned out in a few months. Even some fully animated movies are manufactured this quickly. Get the movie from "green light" to DVD as fast as possible to maximize profit and minimize interest payments on all that borrowed money. It takes an average of 3 years for a Pixar movie to go through actual production -and that's not counting all the story development time. The difference really shows. Each Pixar movie release has pushed the boundaries of what was possible in computer animation and defined new standards of excellence. Ratatouille is no exception. Pixar has been able to animate hair and fur very well for its past few features. This time each strand or whisker had many layers of subtle appearance from levels of shine and transparency to dry, damp, soaked and even scorched textures. I really liked the varying depth of field camera lens treatments used to soften certain edges and throw in blur where desired. More than enough was done for many scenes to achieve a photo-realistic feel while also maintaining the look of an animated movie. To be fair, other studios like Sony Pictures Animation and PDI/Dreamworks are making big strides. However, Pixar is simply on another level. It's obvious those guys really love their work. They put in a lot of extra effort to add many layers of subtle refinement and personality to each scene. Some of that they strive to do requires some serious, innovative software engineering. The short feature, Lifted, was the funniest Pixar short since For The Birds. It's a good homage to Close Encounters and had a little of the Monsters Inc. feel to it too. The "Wilhelm" scream was a good cherry on top. Presentation Quality Image quality: Very good. The feature looked great, just as I expected. Audio quality: Pretty good. Decent surround use. Music score had a lot of subtle detail to it. The LPCM 5.1 works well to convey that. Audience quality: Most of the audience was well behaved. However, it only takes a few selfish idiots to cause serious distractions and disruptions in a theater. Several teenage boys sat in the third row of the theater compulsively texting on their mobile phones. Of course, everyone else in the theater could see those bright, distracting displays.  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-04-2007 03:43 AM                     The gf and I went and watched the 11 pm showing tonight at AZ Mills. Why we didn't go to my theater I'm not sure. Why do people bring little kids to a 11pm show? Some people do not know how to parent their kids. Any way to the film. I can't say really anything that hasn't already been said. Pixar just knows how to make a GREAT film time after time. I will add this to my DVD collection when it comes out. How ever I'm not to sure about Wall-E. I think that this one could be their first stinker. There will be no voice cast for this film, all done by the coimputer. But I COULD and most likley am wrong.  |  IP: Logged Paul Mayer Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under! Posts: 3836 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Feb 2000 posted 07-04-2007 07:11 PM                        Cinemark Suncoast, Screen #8, $7.00 for the 1:55pm matinee. Brad Bird working with Pixar does it again. Very very satisfying to watch, on several different levels. Well done! Caught this at the now Cinemark Suncoast. Projection and sound appear to be about the same as I remember for this location. It was in frame and in focus from the start. Just a little bit a dirt at the beginning and some less than invisible reel joins and automation cues. Not bad - certainly not the worst I've seen in this town. Two things they need to work on though: 1. Their entire digital rolling stock was cropped in half due to the top mask being set for 2.39 while the digital projector was zoomed to fit the entire width. So I didn't really get to see what Front Row Joe looks like on a big screen. 2. This theatre has always had problems with its dowsers. Every presentation I've seen here tails out on the screen. At least the audio is muted. This time the dowser closed about half way. Progress.  |  IP: Logged

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