"Avatar"... Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek Auditorium 1... December 31st 2009

Evidently the Lake Creek Alamo has decided to follow in its original owners' footsteps and install Sony's 4K projectors for a digital 3D experience. Avatar did not disappoint, though the movie was darker than I remember it... I would prefer it brighter... definitely need to see a 2D screening somewhere to see how bright it can be. The Lake Creek Alamo maintains an inventory of viewing spectacles that is not refreshed with new ones every screening... this undoubtedly saves them money and is better for the environment, as there aren't 150 sets of spectacles getting thrown in the trash every 3 hours. However, it isn't necessarily better for us, because the spectactles aren't new - they're covered in smudges and fingerprints, especially on the lenses!

food = mediocre

different menu to the original venues

non-feature projector was not straight and was off the top of the screen

sound = great

booming from next auditorium

2/3rds full

"Avatar"... Alamo Drafthouse South... Auditorium 1... December 22nd 2009

Different glasses, the Real3D standard type w/ reflections
Light from entryway
popcorn & guinness = good
sound not as dynamic, extension not as deep
picture blurry? this 4K cannot compete w/ IMAX
ending credits were better

"Avatar"... Bob Bullock IMAX... December 18th 2009

The first in a series of viewings I have no doubt.
The IMAX picture didn't fill the screen
film - one scratch at beginning
super-crisp, could read all text
annoying V/O guy at end over music
dialogue during 3D
crowd in movie seemed to be in the auditorium
audio didn't boom or seem like a demo
only one trailer, alice
big red spectacles
3D don't rotate your head
eyes too transfixed to worry about food or restrooms

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" Alamo Drafthouse South... Auditorium 6... December 13th 2009

The Alamo South's dark auditorium was the first thing to impress. No! Their upscale and pretty darn clean restrooms were the first thing to impress. Or maybe... was it the large amount of legroom? No, I think it was the relief I got as I first walked in, and saw how large the room is. The Alamo South's custom-built rooms appear to be larger than the Lake Creek location, which was a real THX-screened cinema before the Alamo took it over. Anyhow by the time the movie started off I was in a pretty good mood. The film trailers looked OK except I immediately noticed a band of picture projecting off the bottom of the screen, onto the black wall! Sacrilege, for such a place as the Alamo. When The Fantastic Mr. Fox started and the problem was continuing in exactly the same way, I wrote this on a piece of paper and allowed a waiter to come and read it. He saw what I was talking about and walked out of the auditorium. I didn't really know what they were going to do about this. It turns out that they didn't do anything - they were mid-way through a transition to 4K Digital in this auditorium, and today happened to be the last day of film projection here. That was a reasonable excuse!

This review would not be complete without mentioning... my favourite new discovery on their menu! On a whim I decided to forego my usual asian chicken salad and get their "Big Fish" Tacos. Wow... talk about a taste explosion! Definitely worth trying.

"An Education"... Arbor At Great Hills Auditorium 6... December 6th 2009

I arrived with trepidation, since this cinema has had pretty disappointing projection for the last few movies I've seen here. The Sprint "please silence your cellphones" image was on screen 'til about 4 minutes past scheduled start. When the motorised curtains widened for cinemascope presentation and the trailers began, the first trailer was for Up In The Air, and it abruptly started half-way into the trailer! Never got to see the first part. But this is a trailer I saw the night before a the Alamo, and I got the feeling it was "zoomed in" ie. the edges of the picture were missing, perhaps, projected off the edge of the screen. A trailer for The End Of Poverty definitely had some picture, including subtitles, off the bottom edge of the screen. An Education finally started, looking pretty sharp around the edges with no black anywhere on the screen, and no visible parts of the film clearly off the edges of the screen.

The sound was adequate, that is to say, this movie could probably do with better sound presentation, but it's no Michael Bay picture. It sounded like it could have been an optical soundtrack, it had that olde-world optical feel noticeable at the beginning (harder to notice once you're used to it by the middle of the story). No artifacts or clicks/pops however.

The biggest problem, one which had me cleaning my glasses, was that the picture was jumping up and down very quickly, and by a very slight amount. This was most noticeable on high-contrast edges, for example the glint in characters' eyes, or static or moving credits. Generally a lack of clarity to the image. This was very disappointing in otherwise what was probably the best image I've seen at this cinema in a while. I very much hope that a twist of the projector's shutter knob is all that is needed to correct this.

"Men Who Stare At Goats" Alamo Village... Auditorium 4... December 5th, 2009

While it is common to have bad lip sync in trailers while cutting quickly from shot to shot and bridging them with dialogue clips, the trailer for the Matt Damon movie Green Zone appeared to have more lip sync errors than most, and the unlikeliest spots... I was worried that it might continue into others, but the rest of the evening's presentation didn't suffer noticeably, however.

We sat too far back this time, in fact one row from the back row. With the auditorium being the longish, narrow shape, the sound seemed uninvolving and somewhat muddied - this principally because nearly all the surround speakers were in front of us, and the front speakers were over 100ft. away. Lesson - don't sit near the back if you need clarity and involvement.

Let this not take away from the Alamo's sound system - it rocks when it needs to and has good response from treble to bass.

Picture was bright and sharp... sitting near the back it did not subtend a large angle at the eye and reminded me of a TV. Lack of jitter & weave contributes to this feeling too.

Overall a commendable presentation from the Alamo. I had a tasty Guinness again. Their popcorn seemed more buttery than it ought to have been, but no major complaints.