If I were a superstitious man, I would be awfully freaked out by the arrival, precisely two years after the debut of Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed”, of another expensive Warner Bros. movie in which Leonardo DiCaprio runs around being all ferrety and nervous, interacting with a nefarious criminal organization while making furtive phone calls to his beefy, well-heeled puppet master.
I’m not, though. And if nothing else, Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” has way more digital explosions than “The Departed” and “Syriana” put together!
Fewer Oscar chances, though.
Also opening this week …
“All Together Now”: In which the magical artistes of Cirque du Soleil struggle to turn the music of the Beatles into something we can all enjoy. Glenn explains.
“An American Carol”: David Zucker applies his undeniable skill with fat jokes and crotch punches to a somber commentary on the class wars in America. With fat jokes and crotch punches. And Chris Farley’s brother. And Kelsey Grammer as … wait, he’s playing Patton? Seriously?
“City of Ember“: Two hundred years after an unspecified apocalypse, a pair of plucky teenagers defy authority to escape the subterranean city that’s become their prison. If you ever wondered what Terry Gilliam might have done with “Dark City” … well, keep wondering, because this ain’t it. (My review should go up on the NOW site sometime this morning. UPDATE: There it is!)
“The Express”: Remember when Gary Fleder was known for edgy projects like “Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead” and that great “Homicide” episode with Vincent D’Onofrio in the subway”? Yeah, well, he’s making inspirational sports movies now. Barrett liked it; Adam, not so much.
“Quarantine”: Sony declined to screen this in advance, so I’ll be catching it later this afternoon, but if it’s half as effective as it was in the original Spanish, I will be awfully happy.
Catch you later …
I *loved* the Spanish original but damn, I won’t be able to catch the remake in the theatre because of all the jerky-handheld camera stuff which makes me nauseous as hell. Looking forward to the DVD though…
No nausea for me, but the digital projection at the Scotiamount did leave me with a mild headache — too much rapid eye movement and I start to see those little DLP rainbows everywhere.
Damn effective remake, by the way.
The DLP rainbow artifacts you describe are caused by the color wheel in single-chip home projectors. However, theatrical DLP projectors use a 3-chip design with no color wheel and are immune to that. If you thought you saw rainbows at a DLP theater, they’re entirely in your head. 🙂
To be honest, I don’t know exactly what I saw — or whether the Scotiabank even uses a DLP projector. According to this link, it’s “Technicolor Digital Cinema”:
http://www.technicolor.com/Cultures/En-Us/About/Press/Thomson-Toronto-Theatre.htm
… though Technicolor’s website is very frustrating when it comes to the particulars.
The artifacts I saw during “Quarantine” didn’t appear that often — only during dark scenes, and then only when I flicked my eyes quickly back and forth to follow motion. They looked like little clusters of red and green hash marks. (With DLP home projectors, I see a small strip of alternating green and black squares.)
The last 15 minutes of “Quarantine” take place in near- or total darkness, so it was pretty easy to make myself see the artifacts once I realized that’s what they were.
Any ideas?