Watching movies in surround is a whole new experience. I started off with a simple stereo system intended for music listening, but by time expanded this from an ordinary 2 channel setup, to 2.1, then 4.1, and finally 5.1. And I have started watching old movies over again after this, just to experience the broader sound 🙂

Some people don’t pay much attention to the sound at all. So as a little reference to myself, and maybe others who would like good examples of surround, I have put together this list. And which I intend to update as I come across movies that demonstrate surround well.

• Kung Fu Panda (review). Entire movie is well made, sound-wise.
• Ratatouille (review). Same as above, but an even better story in my opinion. It also won quite a few awards for the sound mixing.
• Gravity (review). This is a very impressive movie, just the plot and visuals. But surround sound is also second to none, comparing to recent years movies. It is an absolute requirement to watch this movie in surround – it makes no sense do to it in stereo! And I don’t mean that about a lot of movies.
• The Bourne Identity (review). When Jason is in his Paris apartment, on the phone with a hotel in the city where he apparently stayed a few weeks back, where now the receptionist is telling him that the guy he is asking for was killed in a car accident. At this point sound effects are circling around in the room 🙂
• Hot Fuzz. Lot’s of intriguing sound effects, happening in the background as well as moving across the room. Clever, action packed, and well-timed.
• Shaun of the Dead. Not my usual pick of genre, but somewhat similar to Hot Fuzz above (cast, director). Sound is also generally good.
• Avatar. Generally good, but the best sound experiences are starting from about second half.
• The Truman show (1998). Not a state of the art movie, but a nice example is the scene when Truman puts the pencil inside the automatic sharpener at 01:12:28.
• Sherlock Holmes. A good scene is when Holmes and Watson are searching for Blackwood inside the houses at the docks. Starting at 01:20:01.
• X-Men: days of our future past (2014).
• Chef (2014). Starting at 00:09:50 showing the skeleton puppet show, the sound pans to the back speakers at about 00:10:26 when zooming in on Chef Casper.