Movie Notes

Holly and I went to see “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” earlier this evening. It was not a good film; I think there’s some argument to be made that the writers’ strike began much earlier than we’d previously thought.

The film was presented in a digital theater. This certainly isn’t the first movie I’ve seen projected digitally, but this was the first time I’d seen a normal film (as opposed to a demo) that looked significantly better than a conventional print. Color saturation was quite a bit better than I’d seen before (deep reds in particular were impressive), brightness was good, and there wasn’t a hint of the pixel grid pattern on the screen that I’ve seen come from some digital projectors in the past.

I’m glad it looked good when projected digitally, because that was pretty well the film’s only redeeming quality.

I can, however, recommend “Charlie Wilson’s War.” It wasn’t quite as visually striking, but it’s an excellent film.

[HD] Theatre of the Absurd

I was talking with a couple of friends recently about high-definition television, and they were a little surprised to learn that I really haven’t done anything of substance with HDTV. I’m an early adopter of technology, but I still haven’t made the move to high-definition television.

Yes, I have one high-definition set at home, but it’s only there because its predecessor spewed actual flames and then refused to power up. But even this lone HD set operates in standard-definition mode 99+% of the time.

Here’s why this early adopter is still on the sidelines.

Continue reading [HD] Theatre of the Absurd