Saw Master & Commander the other day in a cinema with a 25m (80') screen and full dolby surround sound. It used to be an IMAX setup - they pulled out the bottom few rows of seats and cut off the bottom of the screen - but it would still easily seat > 1000.
Oh yeah, the movie?
Awesome is the only appropriate word.
Never mind the acting (which was good, but I think everyone expected that); the special effects were an absolute knockout. It's a real shame that you had bum sound Merc. IMO, it should win an Oscar for this aspect hands down. The CGI was undetectable most of the time (unlike the risible recent Star Wars and countless other films with completely unbelievable SFX), and the attention to detail (real cannonball whine and real wood smashing sounds and visuals) made the film far more hair-raising than the mild rating suggested.
The trailers are quite misleading and don't do the film justice in either its impact or overall experience. This is as good as virtual reality gets, partly because the whole movie is designed as an emotional rollercoaster - and I do mean
emotional, not lots of explosions. Most of the film is about life on the ship, and it's not at all "Aye! Me Hearties!".
The massive impact all this creates in the right setting means I need to see this picture again to pick up more of the nuances - I missed many the first time around. Definitely a DVD purchase for us so that we can try to take it all in the second or third time around.
The bad news is I got the director's cut of Das Boot for Christmas. This is renowned as one of the most atmospheric films ever made, but it's just not going to be the same after experiencing Master and Commander.