"Alien Trespass" Arbor Great Hills... Auditorum 2... April 11th 2009

The only cinema showing this movie in all of Austin, so thank you Arbor. However - how could their presentation be so wrong? Nice sharp matting, but the film image was larger than the screen... by about 6 inches, so during bright daylight scenes you could see the film all around the edges. This was at the top and left+right edges anyway... it was clear there was something going on at the bottom edge of the screen too, since the credits were bleeding off the bottom. (names of characters cut off, for example) Alien Trespass is an homage-to-the-50's sci-fi flick, and I suppose there could be something deliberately-erroneous going on by the director, but doubtful. Basically they weren't showing us paying customers the whole movie.... I guess we gotta wait for Netflix!

Secondly the sound was a bit off. It had nice, healthy volume, but wasn't very dynamic and I'm minded to conclude 1) it was Dolby SR and not some kind of digital sound, since there were loud pops during reel changes, and 2) there was artifacting occurring, reducing the fidelity of the soundtrack. This is most obvious during moments of the music track that feature pure tones, like high strings or solo clarinet. This 50's sci-fi score had a lot of that, and it was obvious something was going wrong with the sound as the music track was glitchy... not smooth like I'd expect to hear at home.

(score note - it was enjoyable but the reverb time was kinda long, reflecting [pardon the pun] a more contemporary recording venue... it could have been a bit shorter to complete the 1950's feel)

Matinee ticket cost = $7.00.

[Update - I notice the Arbor is only one of 22 U.S. theaters showing the film, so... thanks!)