Comments from Giles

Showing 101 - 125 of 1,165 comments

Giles
Giles commented about Uptown Theatre on Jul 31, 2017 at 1:13 pm

One would think and hope this is the case but the public / neighborhood outcry has begun -the public meeting is scheduled for the latter end of September

Giles
Giles commented about Uptown Theatre on Jul 31, 2017 at 12:52 pm

I recently went to see a 3D screening of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and it was by the most underwhelming presentation, visually. Even with the glasses slightly diminishing the colors and brightness I was rather surprised the dimensionality was retained. Outside of the drained colors, the image had this murky graininess hampering the image – if this were laser projection this wouldn’t be an issue. The very top of the image was ever so cropped but wasn’t too visually distracting. The 5.1 sound was great probably the best part of the experience, but this is one theater that AMC seriously needs to consider installing a Dolby Atmos sound system, why they are being so bullheaded over this is beyond me. Lastly speaking of AMC, they are in the process of removing the iconic vintage lighted ‘Uptown’ sign from off of the building – ?!? (why?) They way they have been treating this theater I’m surprised they want to install a tacky AMC on the front …. unreal.

Giles
Giles commented about Regal Potomac Yard 16 on Jun 21, 2017 at 3:06 pm

what’s the deal with this theater – is it making money or not? Seeing and knowing of the proposed plans of raising the adjacent strip mall/parking lot as well as the theater itself – the future plans don’t make any mention if the theater will be implemented in the new design – has anyone heard, read or know what Alexandria has in the cards for the new ‘North Potomac Yards’ area – in terms if Regal is coming back or not?

Giles
Giles commented about Synetic Theater on Jun 21, 2017 at 2:37 pm

obviously this reporter forgot about this prior location being a movie theater, but on the plus side looks like the ‘live’ Synetic theater' will have a new ‘movie’ theater neighbor.

https://dc.curbed.com/2017/6/21/15846836/alamo-drafthouse-cinema-crystal-city

Giles
Giles commented about AFI Silver Theatre on Jun 17, 2017 at 10:03 am

^ I remember Gore Vidal as ‘Captain 20’ too

anyone know if the AFI fixed that ugly blemish on screen 2, most everything lately I’ve seen at the Silver has been on screen 1 or 3.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Mar 30, 2017 at 1:03 pm

the Tyson’s screen was flat even in it’s prior ETX form – however when Dolby added more lighting, that’s when the problem with the light bouncing back onto the screen occurred.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Mar 30, 2017 at 7:17 am

the Tyson’s screen is significantly taller and wider, so yes, the DC screen here is smaller; on the plus side the audio is much better calibrated and not as inconsistent as it is at Tysons.

Giles
Giles commented about Cinemark Fairfax Corner 14 + XD on Mar 26, 2017 at 11:34 pm

I haven’t been here in awhile, but what’s going on at this theater complex? I thought there were two prior ‘Xtreme’ screens, are they both XD now or has one gone back to just being a standard large screen. Also it seems odd that as of this posting they appear to be only six screens in use – are there upgrades/renovations going on? Cinemark could in my opinion upgrade the seats, make all sound systems to be 7.1. Shame Cinemark sealed the deal with Barco and Auro, the latter being crushed by more movies being mixed and released in Dolby Atmos.

Giles
Giles commented about Roth's Silver Spring West Theatre on Mar 14, 2017 at 4:43 pm

I remember going here since my friend used to work here.

Giles
Giles commented about AFI Silver Theatre on Mar 14, 2017 at 4:42 pm

well on the positive side – the DCP of ‘The Dark Crystal’ is the best it’s looked and sounded since, well … it’s 70mm engagement

Giles
Giles commented about Lockheed Martin IMAX Theater on Mar 8, 2017 at 9:18 am

guess with one off showings for it’s Sci-Fi Sundays – the Smithsonian relaxed it’s “no R-rated movies” policy – they’ve shown “Alien” “Aliens” “Blade Runner” “The Matrix”

and oh, check out the new Greg MacGillivray movie: ‘Dream Big’ – who knew that ‘engineering’ was a topic ripe for the ultra big screen & 3D.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Lincoln Square 13 on Feb 14, 2017 at 3:29 pm

^ maybe that’s why there were so few 3D screenings of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ at Udvar Hazy … [shrugs] … I’ve never noticed the reflective glasses issue and any other flaws over at either of the Smithsonian IMAX-laser setups.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Feb 14, 2017 at 3:20 pm

I noticed this while down at Charlottesville, at the Regal Stonefield Stadium 14, that the new screens are what the industry refers to as ‘floating screens’ and sadly are fixed at 1.85, thus any scope movie is nestled in the middle of the screen and essentially letterboxed – one word: yuck!

Giles
Giles commented about Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun on Jan 15, 2017 at 9:46 am

As of last Friday (the 13th) the brand new auditorium with 222 seats and a full blown 5 stage channels, and 43 surround Dolby Atmos sound system opened up here.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Hoffman Center 22 on Jan 3, 2017 at 7:41 pm

Hoffman’s Dolby Cinema auditorium opened with the premier of ‘Star Wars: Rogue One’ last month

Giles
Giles commented about Universal Cinema AMC at Citywalk Hollywood 19 on Dec 18, 2016 at 9:05 pm

it also sounds that ALL the auditoriums are outfitted to playback in Dolby Atmos as well

Giles
Giles commented about Regal Bethesda 10 on Dec 8, 2016 at 7:32 am

who knows maybe the new building will have Regal coming back if the managing director for Carr is correct in that Regal have dibs for space within the new complex.

Giles
Giles commented about Regal Stonefield Stadium 14 & IMAX on Nov 7, 2016 at 7:16 pm

I like how the screens float off the wall with blue light illuminating the wall behind the screen – for the feature it’s turned off. Saw ‘Inferno’ the overly bombastic 5.1 soundmix sounded amazing if not a bit overdone at points.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Oct 18, 2016 at 9:05 pm

went over today to check it out, it’s a fixed ‘floating’ scope framed screen, therefore any flat (1.85) movie will be centered and have black borders on the side of the image. It’s a medium sized auditorium and unlike Tyson’s the walls separating the rows are not set too high, thus allowing you to hear the rear center channels of sound. While ‘The Accountant’ is neither a Dolby Vision movie nor mixed in Atmos, it really didn’t provide what ‘Vision’ promotes, the dark levels look grey and not inky black. The sound though has considerable punch, notably with the guttural ‘gun’ shoots – sound in my mind is set too high for the size of the auditorium, voices sounded pushed way too forward and the action scenes can be slightly punishing, but unlike Tyson’s which has serious audio calibration issues, volume level here at Georgetown seems to be the only problem.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Oct 14, 2016 at 8:06 am

well that took forever, but the Dolby Cinema screen has opened as of this week with ‘The Accountant’ – shame that it’s not an official Dolby color graded movie.

Giles
Giles commented about Tysons Cinema on Sep 23, 2016 at 6:19 am

so was this the location / theater that had 70mm capabilities? according to in70mm.com ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ played here:

and according to the story, in it’s one screen configuration was as such:

825 seats. 60 foot wide 150 degree curved screen 2 Bauer U2 projectors

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Georgetown 14 on Jul 25, 2016 at 10:56 pm

has anyone been here recently – are they renovating more than one auditorium currently? what are they improving?

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Mazza Gallerie 7 on Jul 19, 2016 at 2:15 pm

only auditorium / screen #2 offers 7.1

Auditorium #1 can and should be easily upgraded to 7.1, since it’s still 6.1 as to why AMC won’t do the simple conversion is beyond me.

I agree tmundell, acoustically Arclight and the Angelika Mosaic are the best in the area and all their auditoriums are outfitted for 7.1 playback.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Tysons Corner 16 on Jul 19, 2016 at 2:05 pm

screen #11 even in it’s prior non Dolby Cinema: ‘ETX’ configurement had no masking for scope films.

Giles
Giles commented about AMC Montgomery 16 on Jul 12, 2016 at 10:23 pm

yup that’s me… Dubstar. So where’d did you eventually see “ID: Resurgence” ? sorry for the late answer but Fairfax’s two Xtreme screens are fixed 1.78 screens – but on the positive side they are massive tall screens (too bad they are Auro 11.1 [so few movies are mixed and released as such])

back on topic though, just saw ‘Secret Life of Pets’ here at Arclight’s widescreen screen and I have to say the 3D (and brightness) was much better than ‘Finding Dory’s presentation.