"Fast And Furious" Cinemark Tinseltown South... Auditorium 14... Sunday May 3rd 2009

Definitely a movie to test the extremes of a cinema's sound system. This movie was pounding music and bass effects from the beginning to the end. The Tinseltown South's speakers coped well, didn't distort, nor were there any audible artifacts of any sort. However, the system sounds a bit "middly" (strong in the 500Hz-1KHz region) and the room overall has a healthy amount of reverb - a corollary of being rather large in the cubic volume department. This room is about as large as, and similar in shape to the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz' large room. For now, I would say it sounds better, but my one-man jury is still out on that.

Picture, on film, was bright and reasonably sharp at the edges, and weave/jitter didn't seem to be a problem. However - and this is big - there was a pretty serious focusing problem. The movie is out of focus at the bottom of the screen, and in-focus at the top. It also seemed to be a little out of focus on the right hand side. This was most evident during the credits roll, but you know it's going on during the film, and it doesn't help. Cinemark doesn't pay for THX certification and their own alignment program probably allows this, to allow for easier construction of booths over stadium seating auditoria.

Odd fact - the men's restroom (and I may assume the ladies') is within earshot of the auditorium, and while the restroom itself was quiet, and otherwise pleasant, I was listening to the screams of men & women in some sort of horrific distress while in for a tinkle.

Matinee ticket cost = $7.00