Subwoofer movies that DON'T suck?

LOTR trilogy...

As a general rule, as bass in a DVD approaches reference extension, the movie's story line concomitantly falls to the lowest of lows as well.....

I had to look that up. I think you skipped an 'L'.

Seth

OOOPS! Thanks....and fixed!

Serenity.

Maybe not that great a sub movie, but it has its moments and the surround track is great; good flick, too

Here are a few other possibilities... depending on your tastes:

Das Boot
U-571 (some like it, some don't)
Saving Private Ryan
Incredibles
Finding Nemo
Master & Commander
Spider-Man 2
Open Range

Add to or clip from the above list as suits your tastes...

I have found that as my audio systems power and capability increased, there was a concomitant reduction in my quality control of the material I played on the system. Actually, I kind of liked WOTW and found it (like most Spielberg films) entertaining but I will admit to an over all reduced level of QC. For me the rule of thumb is, if it sounds good, I will attempt to watch it. For example, I am really looking forward to the DVD release of King Kong. Do I believe that this is going to be a good movie? Probably not but I bet it will sound great and be fun to watch.

master and commander--you've seen.
U-571--I really enjoyed it on my regular tv--loved it with my new system.
You mentioned LOTR trilogy--awesome.
If you liked hero you must watch "house of flying daggers", highly recommend
Nemo--surprising good bass, great movie
Saving Private Ryan--One of the absolute best movies and soundtracks
tears of the sun--if you can tolerate the constant bruce willis close up stares--its a good movie
Black Hawk Down--award winning sound, great true story
Behind enemy lines--some FX stuff, but not at all overdone.
The haunting has unbelievable bass, ok as a movie--doesn't totally suck
the Matrix trilogy--I haven't seen all 3, not really a fan but many people love them, good bass scenes
Star Wars trilogy--the new ones episode 1-3, I have seen all three, not a huge fan, but the originator of THX does know how to make a soundtrack that impresses
BladeII is supposed to have great bass, if you liked the first one it might be worth a shot
Apollo 13--good movie, not astounding bass--really only the take off scene and it is only ok
jurassic parks--3 and 1. The original is the best movie, the 3rd has better bass
Rundown--a movie I thought I would hate, but actually enjoyed--good sound, despite the Rock


The other end of the spectrum--War of the Worlds is probably the king of bass movies, but it does suck as a movie.
The absolute worst movies I have forced myself to stomach my way through--solely for the bass:

Godzilla (matthew broderick version)--unbelievably bad movie--can't believe they made it. It took three sittings to get through
Fantastic four--good sound, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE movie, fell asleep despite the shaking
Superman 2--I know tons of people love it, I barely made it through
Pearl harbor--really only one scene has good bass, the rest of the movie blows
Hellboy--probably the best on this list, but still bad--good bass though
and my #1 stinkfest movie with impressive bass....The Hulk. Holy S#@* what a peice of garbage that thing is. It is almost worth forcing yourself to sit through it just for the shear enjoyment of just how bad it is--It is so bad. That is the only thing making almost watchable--the fact that they actually made such a hunk of stinking dung. As much as I have tried I can't get through it. Still never seen every scene of it. Good bass and jennifer connelly--that is it.

So, what I think we are saying is, subwoofer/bass enthusiasts are not necessarily good movie critics.

One movie I enjoyed quite a bit and which you don't expect would be a big-bass flick is "Open Range". There's some cool thunder in the opening, but the shotgun stuff near the end is what really surprizes you, quite percussive.

I put my HT system together so I can enjoy mindless entertainment without going to the movie house and being surrounded by the mindless. My work requires me to be "On" all the time. It is nice to be able to shut down and watch something with good visuals and sound. If it isn't up to snuff in the dialog department or the situations are preposterous, well that can be entertaining as well for its humor. In contrast, watch Pride & Prejudice. Good dialog, boring as hell. It would have been just as satisfying to watch it on an iPod.

One of my favorites for sound is The Fifth Element. I understand the SuperBit version is better than the commercial release. There are some good explosions and when the evil entity speaks, good deep rumble.

second that,

also try 7 any of the matrix movies and there was one other animated movie damn cant think of it i remember them going through ice asteriods that had some serious bass

Titan A.E.


Tim

That would be Titan A.E. I agree that it is a pretty good movie.

Iron Giant: Decent movie, good bass.

Polar Express: wrong time of the year, good movie, good sound FX

Adult Flix (non-porno):

Batman Begins
Patriots (Superbit Version)

AirForce One had some decent bass in it. It was a pretty good flick, not the best but I have not seen many Academy award winning movies (as far as story and content) that has the type of bass talked about here. Save for the likes of movies like Saving Private Ryan, there are very few.

This thread reminded me why I only needed to go so far in the infrasonic bass department. Not that much for good films with a lot of infrasonic source material is out there.


Now, getting the bass even throughout the listening area by use of multiple subwoofers is another matter!

The Perfect Storm was a pretty good movie (based on a true story). I can't remember if it had a ton a bass though. I do know it had good special effects.

Yeah, it's a Western, not what you'd expect much bass from. Worth watching, there just happens to be some good LFE there.

Das Boot is an amazing movie experience, period. Far, far better movie than U-571 IMO. The storm sequence and depth charges have content down below 15 Hz....

Das Boot was originally filmed in the early 1980's for German TV. It was remastered in DD 5.1 in 1995 (approximately) for theatrical release. It is an AWESOME movie, definitely the best submarine movie ever made and IMHO one of the best war movies of any kind.

U571 has more bass effects but isn't 1/10th of the movie.

Dark City

Sky Captain
Unbreakable

You probably won't like those though either.

Ladder 49 was a pretty good one I thought. Great bass in the opening scenes especially.

Amen. While the opening rain scene isn't a boomer, it is most realistic. Not one person I've played this scene for has failed to turn and look around behind them. I think it is a relatively unique experience to be watching a rain scene in a movie, and really have the sound of the rain all around you. It is a startling experience. Good gun battle, and pretty good flick.

As the OP and some others have noted, there are not all that many good movies with great bass. Some that come to mind (many already mentioned):

Iron Giant
Das Boot
Blackhawk Down
Master and Commander
From the Earth to the Moom (HBO Miniseries)
Aliens
Contact
Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas
Band of Brothers

best two movies I have seen so far this year, along with a good sound track are
Serenity and the new batman movie. I watched Serentiy twice. Best Batman movie I have seen so far.

Don't know how it qualifies for pure LFE, but the all time greatest testosterone moment in cinema was when Jesse the Body got capped in Predator and Bill Duke picks up his gatlin gun and all hell breaks loose. HELL YEAH! I'm going to go cue it up right now for some good alone time. Excuse me.

Yup.

Seth