Hey all, my sister will be getting married this weekend so we will have a lot of people over at my house. After the wedding people will be hanging out over here and I'll need some great movies to show off the theater. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I don't want anything real gory like Saving Private Ryan, but something that has great surround effects and bass... I guess a plot wouldn't hurt anything either . Also, there was a web site that showed a list of current 6.1 movies but I can't remember what it is... I have not googled it yet, but if anyone knows off the top of their head I would love to look at it again.

I was thinking about Batman Begins, what do y'all (thats how we talk down here in Georgia ) think?

Here is my theory on showing off a home theater:

To impress people you have a limited amount of time to make a quick impact. So you have the option of starting with a movie, like Saving Private Ryan as you mentioned, that starts off with a bang. That will give them the wow factor you are after. The other option is to pick a movie where you can jump to a scene with good sound and visual effect. The problem is then you have to cut to the middle of a movie which may spoil the overall experience. What to do? How do you make a big impact in a short amount of time?

What does every movie theater start with, apart from commercials? They start with a preview/trailer. A trailer has only 60 seconds to convince the audience to lay down $10 the next time they want to see a movie. They often start out with "that narrator guy's" voice introducing the movie. I am sure you know who I am talking about. Then it is 45 seconds of that movies best sound effects, visual effects and hopefully some dialog as well. My favorite for this is Lost in Space. The trailer has all the elements I mentioned as well as full 5.1 sound, some good orchestral music and high quality MPEG 2 encoding for the video. Many DVD's have trailers with 2 channel stereo and grainy video. This one is good. Also, the title is family oriented so you don't need to worry about offending anyone.

After that put in a movie and you are good to go. I will also often demo the Dolby Digital trailers that came on DVD Spectacular but they are 4:3 ratio.

Good luck.

Greg

You could always plug in some good concert DVDs.

Everybody loves The Incredibles!

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is the best beginning I know of. It's so good in fact, I struggle to turn the darn movie off once I start it!

I picked up some demo DVDs off of eBay in the past. The most recent is chocked full of just movie trailers. ALl are in Dolby Digital 5.1. The first demo DVD I got last year was some trailers, but mainly clips from movies in both Dobly Digital 5.1 and DTS. They both include Dolby, DTS, and THX trailers. All have great sound and good picture. I know that it may be too late for an eBay purchase, but maybe someone closer to you has one.

Otherwise, I like the "Tumbler" sequence in Batman Begins, or the Lexus car factory scene in Minority Report (great bass). Saving Private Ryan has unbelievable effects in the opening 30 minutes, but it is hard for some people to watch.

Here are some favorite movies from people here (did a quick search)...

Jurassic Park (DTS)
Indiana Jones DVDs (did any awesome pan job with the surrounds)
Master and Commander (hated the movie, loved the surround)
Lord of the Rings Extended (DTS-ES)
Gladiator (DTS)
Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Series
The Eagle's Hell Freezes Over (wow...wow)
Saving Private Ryan (DTS)
Finding Nemo
S.W.A.T. opening scene
Jurassic Park (DTS)
Indiana Jones DVDs (did any awesome pan job with the surrounds)
Master and Commander (hated the movie, loved the surround)
Lord of the Rings Extended (DTS-ES)
Gladiator (DTS)
Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Series (coming to US fans this summer, I hear it is awesome!)
The Eagle's Hell Freezes Over (wow...wow)
Saving Private Ryan (DTS)
Finding Nemo
Star Wars 1,2,3 (light sabers are cool)
Titan AE
The Last Samaurai
The Italian Job - intro music was made for Axioms
The Time Machine - Dream Works version
Kill Bill - plummy tube amped electric guitar.
T3
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Quidditch match
Any of the Lord of the Rings movies
Black Hawk Down
Blue Crush
Bourne Identity
The Haunting - Bass
Independence Day
Last of the Mohicans
Mission to Mars
Open Range
The Patriot
Seabiscuit
U-571 - Depth charges
We Were Soldiers

Good luck!

Thanks for the response all those are great suggestions. The Incredibles is a great idea, a whole spectrum of ages would like that one.

BrotherBob: I do have "Hell freezes over - Eagles" DVD

Craig: LOTR, that could work as well. I guess I'll select a few and give them the choice.

Nick: Thanks for the DVD list. On the preview DVD side.... I know some people buy special DVD's that have their personal message, trivia and intro's on them. How do you smoothly transition from the trivia dvd to the actual movie like the theaters? Trivia ends, lights dim... movie starts, that kind of thing. Going up to the DVD player kinda destroys the effect you were going for in the first place.

Finding Nemo is something everyone will like as well!

Dazed and Confused ok I'm kidding

Or you can do what I do....

"I'm playing this. If you don't like it, there's the ( 'ing ) door!"




J/K ... BrotherBob really couldn't be like that.