Any way to clean up the look of the shutdown/logout/restart process?

So, I've given up trying to configure my system (ubuntu 10.10, open source ATI drivers) to shutdown/logout/restart gracefully. Whenever I do any of the three, all I get is an ugly ubuntu logo with console text running over it. It does shutdown quickly, and I love that. It just looks awful while it does it.

Is there a way to just have nothing displayed when I click shutdown/logout/restart? For example, is there a command that can disable the screen that I can put somewhere in some configuration file that will be the absolute first thing that is executed when I select shutdown/logout/restart? I know of the xset dpms force off command which does turn the display off, but moving the mouse at all or pressing any key will turn it back on again.

Is there a command that can disable the screen and disable any input that I can place somewhere that will be the first thing that is executed when I select shutdown/logout/restart?

ok to clarify that, when you startup (from power off or restart), is the splash screen in your native resolution?

Also, do you have any new/mainline kernels installed? I mean those that are NOT rolled out as part of ubuntu update.

I use the proprietary nvidia drivers and that messed my start and shutdown screens. I did find a workaround so that the screen now just works like the one with the open source nouveau drivers. Keen on that? Involved editing some grub header files.

Okay, I don't see a reply button to anyone's comments above so I guess I'll just have to post this here:

@aking1012: I put the information you requested here. Again, I'm only using the default ubuntu drivers (though, I did try the proprietary drivers earlier to try and resolve the issue but it changed nothing).

@Eshwar: It is not a resolution problem. The bootup splash is fine, displays in the correct resolution and does not display any terminal text. The shutdown/logout/restart text is also in the correct resolution. Also, I only have the kernels that ubuntu provides through regular updates.

@Fraekkert: Thank you, but that is the complete opposite of the solution I'm looking for. Getting rid of Plymouth would give me a verbose bootup, as well as, shutdown/logout/restart. Terminal text is what I'm trying to avoid.