Children of Men

Just finished this movie last night. I'm still on the fence as to whether I would recommend it from a film persepctive. But from a demo perspective, it is pretty amazing. Some of the things that stood out:

First, the spatial clues in the surround sound track are among the best I've heard, period. They extend well beyond the speakers.

Second, there are several gun battles in the film. All are well done. But the final siege of the town when the tanks roll in is killer. They pummel a few buildings and the low bass is great -- not just one-note boom, but good, percusive impacts.

For whatever reason, dogs appear throughout the movie. At one point, a couple of dogs were barking and our dog, Boyd, dropped his toy, walked over and sat in front of the screen for several seconds trying to figure out where the other dogs were! (it's always a good sign if a SS track can fool animals ).

lastly, the visuals are not bad either. It's a 1:85:1 aspect ratio, which I like best, since it fills my display without letterbox bars. In one scene, a mob attacks a car driving through a forest. The driver is forced to back up at high speed while a motorcycle pursues him. The camera perspective is from inside the car, so you really feel like you're the one backing up as the motorcycle gets closer and closer.

That movie also has one of the longest continuous shot-sequences ever filmed. (it's something like a 10-minute long shot)

I believe the director said in an interview that it took months of planning and rehearsing just to be able to execute the shot which apparently included a couple of surprises (see Clive Owen's face) when he got a little too close to some explosions because he did not get the timing just right.

That's an interesting bit of trivia. By chance, do you know which scene it was? When you mentioned explosions, two come to mind that might fit: the battle for the town, or the bombing at the cafe.

Yes, it was the scene at the end - the town battle. It barely give you time to breath the whole time.