I was home in Eugene this weekend and my parents had the DVD set for season one of Six Feet Under. I watched the first three episodes a while ago, and while they were well made they didn't grip me. But while there I watched episodes 4-7. It appears I just stopped at the wrong place before because these really pick up at episode 4 and 5. Now I'm hooked and have since watched up through episode 12. I only have one more to go to finish season one.

Now I run into the same tough place I did with Sex And The City a while ago. I watch through the episodes on DVD and really get interested in the show. To the point that I think about subscribing to HBO to watch it. But then I remember that the DVD's are at least 2 seasons behind what's airing. So if I subscibe to watch them I've missed out on two full seasons of storylines. Instead I just wait for them on DVD and rent them when they release. Fox did this right with 24 last season. They released the DVD set of the first season before the second season aired. So if you hadn't watched the show in season one but picked up the DVD you could watch through all of them and then start right in on the broadcast of season two. Plus 24 naturally lends itslef to having all the episodes sitting in one place to be watched back to back. Aalthough without the commercials they won't truly be in real time, so you coulnd't do the insanity of a 24 hour 24 marathon (why would you want to, it would be painful...)

Then last night I finally got around to seeing The Matrix Reloaded on IMAX. The worst thing about this is they showed an IMAX trailer before the film. Allow me to explain: IMAX screens have an aspect ratio of 4:3 (like most TV's) but regular movie theaters are closer to 16:9 (there are actually several different ratios, I won't go into that.) This is why many DVD's or less commonly VHS tapes are letterboxed with the black bars on the top and bottom. They're making up for the differences in screen size and choosing to throw away screen real estate but keep the entire movie image. The other method is called pan and scan (what most VHS tapes do) where they recut the film throwing away the sides of the picture so they can fill the whole TV. But what does this mean to IMAX?

Well, in order to not cut out part of the movie they letterboxed it on the IMAX screen. Now, since the screen is huge a letterboxed version is still giant but it doesn't have the oppressive assault on your peripheral vision that IMAX usually has. This would have all been cool, I don't go to IMAX movies very much, I didn't REALLY remember what that was like. But then they played a preview in the full IMAX format and reminded me. After that the letterboxed version just didn't seem as cool.

That said the sound was excellent. And the special film IMAX uses meant the picture was crystal clear (much clearer then a typical movie projection.) And since the stadium seating is so severe you end up sitting pretty close to this huge image without craning your neck at all (this was cancelled out by the remarkable uncomfortable seats.)

Final verdict: Outside of the uncomfortable seats this is a slightly better experience then seeing the movie in a high quality regular theater (I'm comparing to the Cinerama in Seattle if you know the area.) But unless you're a nut like me it probably isn't better enough to warrant a special trip. And it certainly isn't better enough to go see the movie again if you weren't thinking about it anyway. It's still the same film.

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