With the one and only Bobcat Goldthwait Live in Person!

Presented by Fantastic Fest!

“A truly strange comedy that actually has a message hidden beneath its colorfully tacky exterior. Admirably twisted, too.”
Scott Weinberg, Cinematical

“Goldthwait wrings tender humanity from disturbing premises, but his scandalously entertaining new satire proves a darker, funnier success.”
Aaron Hills, the Village Voice

A story about a man that learns the things you want most may not be the things that make you happy, and that being lonely is not necessarily the same as being alone.

Robin Williams stars as Lance Clayton, a man who has learned to settle. He dreamed of being a rich and famous writer, but has only managed to make it as a high school poetry teacher. His only son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) is an insufferable jackass who won’t give his father the time of day. He is dating Claire (Alexie Gilmore), the school’s adorable art teacher, but she doesn’t want to get serious — or even acknowledge publicly that they are dating.

Then, in the wake of a freak accident, Lance suffers the worst tragedy and greatest opportunity of his life. He is suddenly faced with the possibility of all the fame, fortune and popularity he ever dreamed of, if he can only live with the knowledge of how he got there.

HOLY CRAP! ORIGINAL SPINAL TAP KEYBOARDIST VIV SAVAGE WILL BE ROCKING WITH US, IN PERSON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20TH! DON’T MISS THIS!

WITH SPECIAL PRIZES FROM CREAM VINTAGE!

Spinal Tap. Even though the film was clearly a documentary, it has come to our attention that many people still think of the film as a work of fiction and that some of you may believe that Spinal Tap isn’t even a real band…

To those haters I ask:
Do they have songs? Yes.
Have they appeared on national television? Yes.

So Spinal Tap is a real band, this is a real rockumentary, and we know almost every line of dialogue in it. We’re going to subtitle our  favorite lines karaoke-style for the audience anyway, and we’ll provide inflatable guitars and every amp in the building will be turned up to 11 the entire time because tonight we will rock you tonight, all night.

“A return, at last, by Tarantino to his combustible and operatic best.”
-James Christopher, The Times of London

“Once upon a time…in nazi-occupied France,” Shosanna Dreyfus
(Melanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes
and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and
operator of a cinema.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s killing-squad joins forces with German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own.

This is movie maniac Tarantino’s ten-years-in-the-making tribute to Italian director Enzo Castellari’s INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, and looks to serve up all possible goods in the name of violent, macho
warfare, with Brad Pitt in the swastika-hatin’ lead. Yo, Hitler…SIT ON IT!!!

Get tickets for THE RITZ showings here.
Get tickets for THE VILLAGE showings here.

This weekend we’ve booked something at the Alamo Village unlike anything we’ve ever tried. Normally, I’m not that into sports and such. I can’t tell you who played in the Superbowl this year and I haven’t watched a baseball game since I was 11. In recent years, however, some sports have gotten so totally ridiculous that I’m starting to consider myself a sports fan again. An EXTREME sports fan. Whenever I’m in a bar and I see some sort of ESPN Ocho extreme death-defying motorcross stunts, I become transfixed.

And now, for the first time ever, we’re going to see 90 minutes of the most crazy insane jumps, thrills, chills and spills in glorious RealD 3D. I’m confident that this film won’t have much of a plot. I’m not going to get to know and care about the ensemble cast of characters. I won’t shed an emotional tear. But damn it, I’m going to watch some truly reckless individuals defy death in eye-popping 3D while I drink beer and munch on pizza.

I’m not going to ponder if this is yet another sign of a declining civilization or if we really are entering a Brave New World.  This Thursday at midnight, I’m personally heading up to the Village to host the Thursday midnight show of XGames 3D. I’m just going to turn off the brain and eat some delicious eye-candy. I invite you to join me. (Tim League)

Charlyne Yi does not believe in love. Or so she says. Well, at the very
least, she doesn’t believe in fairy-tale love or the Hollywood
mythology of love, and her own experiences have turned her into yet
another modern-day skeptic.

This film follows Charlyne as she embarks on a quest across America to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn’t fully understand. As she and her good friend (and director) Nicholas search for answers and advice about love, Charlyne talks with friends and strangers, scientists, bikers, romance novelists, and children. They each offer diverse views on modern romance, as well as various answers to the age-old question: does true love really exist? Then, shortly after filming begins, Charlyne meets a boy after her own heart: Michael Cera. As their relationship develops on camera, her pursuit to discover the nature of love takes on a fresh new urgency. Charlyne risks losing the person she finds closest to her heart.

Combining elements of documentary and traditional storytelling, reality and fantasy, PAPER HEART brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story.

A candy-colored, hypersaturated family movie from Austin’s own adventure factory, Troublemaker Studios!

Set in the suburb of Black Falls, where all the houses look the same and everyone works for Black Box Unlimited Worldwide Industries Incorporated/ Mr. Black’s “Black Box” is the ultimate communication and
do-it-all gadget that’s sweeping the nation. Other than keeping his parents employed, however, the Black Box has done nothing for 11-year-old Toe Thompson, who just wants to make a few friends…until a mysterious rainbow-colored rock falls from the sky, hits him in the head and changes everything. The Rainbow Rock does Mr. Black’s Black Box one better: it grants wishes to anyone who holds it. Before long,
wishes-gone-wrong have left the neighborhood swarming with tiny spaceships, crocodile armies, giant boogers and outrageous magical mayhem around every corner. But it’s not until the grown-ups get their hands on the Rock that the trouble really starts. Now Toe and his newfound friends must join forces to save their town from itself, discovering along the way that what you wish for is not always what you want.

Who doesn’t love the great Bruce Lee? Not only was he the most visible
martial artist in the world for a few short years, he really was the best. And not just the best at punching and kicking, he also had a great sense of how to act for the camera. He was truly the most magnetic thing on the screen until his stunning and untimely death. Suddenly the world’s exhibitors had a huge demand for Bruce Lee product with, obviously, none forthcoming. So began the mostly dishonorable period of Bruceploitation. Marquees abounded with Bruce Le and Bruce Li. If there was no Lee lookalike, it was okay; you could just call the movie BRUCE IS LOOSE or BRUCE’S BLOODY KICKS and you’d fool audiences long enough to get their money. This film is a little different from other Brucesploitation films in that it does actually feature Bruce Lee. The first reel consists of documentary footage of Lee and rare black and white clips of films he appeared in as a child, where he was billed as “the little dragon.” But then things take a left turn as we segue into a hilarious kung fu movie that purports to be “the project Bruce Lee was readying for production at the time of his death.” And holy shit. This movie is something else. It stars Dragon Lee, one of the lower tier Bruce Lee-a-likes and is filled with all the clichés the resourceful producers could cram in. You’ll be holding your stomach to keep from throwing up with laughter. A really special experience. (Lars)

YOU MUST CHOOSE! Since its inception, the Weird Wednesday Choose Your Own Adventure Night has been a virtual guarantor of cinematic
strangeness far beyond even our own Wildest Dreams. Here’s how it works: we pull three movies from the vaults, I’ll fill you in a bit on the details, then you, the audience, will choose the movie by applauding. As always, we have some awesome movies set aside for just such an occasion. Choose Your Own Weird Wednesday is one of the great,
though irregularly scheduled, traditions of this series. Some of the best, wrongest and just plain awkward moments in my life (Anybody remember COUNTRY HOOKER?) have been at Choose Your Own Adventure nights. This year make your voice heard! And don’t email me looking for hints about which movies will be in the mix ’cause I won’t tell you. (Lars)

By popular demand: the Weird Wednesday T shirt from Mondo Tees!

Weird Wednesday Facebook Page.

Read more about these films at Lars’ Weird Wednesday blog.

LAST ONE-HIT WONDERS OF THE 80s SHOW!

In the 1980s, video killed the radio star. In the 2000s, videos took over Thursday night programming at the Alamo Drafthouse, but it hasn’t been until this month that we’ve finally come around and put together a show that will let us play The Buggles and mix them in with everyone’s favorite phone number of all time – 867-5309 (god, if only we knew the area code for Jenny, too).

That’s right, after nearly three separate volumes of One-Hit Wonders of the ’90s shows, we’re finally coming around and giving the 1980s their One-Hit dues. Because though the decades have changed and the music has evolved, these bands all managed to create at least one song that will
be part of our lives forever. And they probably wrote a few other songs, too, but no one really remembers those anymore…

For us, though, the future is still so bright that we’ve gotta wear shades, so we’ll have some Timbuk 3 right along side the high pitched screaming of A-Ha. Believe it or not, we’re walking on air!

Alamo Sing-Alongs on Facebook

The film-talkers of Master Pancake invite you to come join THE BREAKFAST CLUB!

Perhaps the quintessential John Hughes movie, THE BREAKFAST CLUB features poutylipped fireball Molly Ringwald and fellow brat-packers Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, and Ally Sheedy as a quintet of misfits trapped in detention for one fateful afternoon. While there, these five Jungian archetypes of high school life (the geek, the jock, the princess, the thug, and the Cure fan) learn that they are not
in fact so very different after  all. Originally titled LIBRARY REVOLUTION, THE BREAKFAST
CLUB shows that by banding together you CAN overthrow ‘the man’ — or at least your douche-bag principal — played perfectly here by the master of assoholitude, Paul Gleason (TRADING PLACES, DIE HARD). Be our guest for some ‘Simple Minded’ fun as Master Pancake’s John, Joe and company give a unique twist to one of the best/worst teen revolution.

We’ve been watching Derrick Comedy videos on YouTube for years…along with 100,000,000 other people. It started out as simply as “oh man, you gotta see this” and exploded into one of the biggest phenomenons on the web. Their odd brand of social humor, which traverses topics as diverse as bro rape to domestic abuse to Dane Cook to head trauma to police brutality to racism to relationships and blowjobs, always keeps us coming back for more. And MYSTERY TEAM is as more as we could hope for.

The film premiered at Sundance to almost preternaturally good reviews…

“MYSTERY TEAM is incredibly well written… It’s funnier and more original than 99% of the comedies Hollywood releases now-a-days. At very least, the film will develop a cult following. But I have a feeling that Derrick Comedy is on the edge of becoming huge.”
- Peter Sciretta, Slashfilm.com

“I thought that the Derrick Comedy team’s short film background would lead to a movie that was lacking cohesion and just a series of sketches, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Watching this movie I couldn’t help but think that I was seeing the future of film
comedy stretching its legs and warming up.”
- Devin Faraci, CHUD.com

On the surface, this throwback to Encyclopedia Brown seems a little too innocent to merit an R rating, but then you watch about five more minutes. It’s R alright, in the best way imaginable.
And it’s the innocence of the three lovable members of the Mystery Team that makes the film so goddamn’d good. Still living on the fumes of their 7th grade detective glory, these now-mature man-childs embark on their first real case, to track down a murderer.

Learn more and watch videos (seriously, watch the videos) at www.derrickcomedy.com

If you’ve been following any of our news at all for the past few months, you probably know how excited we are about this project. I’m talking, of course, about THE HIGHBALL: bowling, private karaoke rooms, skeeball, dining, drinking and more, more, more! We’re currently in the process of converting the old, abandoned Salvation Army space next door to the Alamo South Lamar into this fantastic space, and you can follow the progress at our HIGHBALL BLOG! Right now there’s a bunch of construction photos taken by Afsheen Nomai so you can get a feel of the space a little bit. As the work continues, we wanna keep you updated so you can get excited along with us! We’re aiming for a soft open for the start of FANTASTIC FEST for our guests and badge holders, with a full, public open soon to follow. So check out THE HIGHBALL BLOG or add it to your RSS FEED and we’ll keep you in the loop!

Also! We purchased the contents of the Legendary ROCK N BOWL in New Orleans, Louisiana.  These lanes will be lovingly restored and installed in THE HIGHBALL. Check out those pictures here!

Follow THE HIGHBALL on Twitter! @HighballAustin

We here at the Alamo love the internet. It’s got all sorts of cool things on it! Sometimes we want to share that stuff with you! Also, we like to let you know when shows are on sale, surprise screenings, and general fun things that we do. Follow us to get up-to-date and instantaneous Alamo news (and general personal information about our fantastic Programming Dept.). All the cool kids are doing it!

Tim League: @TimAlamo (Founder/Owner)
Henri Mazza: @HenriMazza (Creative Director/Programmer)
Lars Nilsen: @LarsAlamo (Programmer/Weird Weds Coordinator)

Caitlin Stevens: @CaitlinEStevens (Programmer/Promotions)

Alamo Drafthouse information: @Drafthouse
Fantastic Fest information: @FantasticFest
The Highball information: @HighballAustin
MondoTees information: @MondoNews

We’ve been spreading the word about our newest private event – the Downtown Austin Photo Scavenger Hunt – for a few months now. But when we started promoting the event as something we had available for your company or group, I hadn’t actually hosted one of these parties, and so I wasn’t really sure what to tell you about them. Now that I’ve got a few under my belt, though, I wanted to take a minute of your time to tell you a little bit about why you should *really* consider the Alamo Drafthouse next time you need an excuse to get your co-workers out of the office.

Personally, I don’t really understand the phrase “team-building,” and I’m glad I’ve never had to go to one of those traditional team-builder-camps where you have to do a ropes course or trust falls.
But I do hang out with my co-workers both at the office and at the theater (which is pretty much my social life anyway), and I know that spending that kind of time together helps us when we’re going through the rigamoral of programming 11 screens, trying to make the new year of Fantastic Fest even more kick ass than the last one, and creating a lot of other awesome series.

So after years of corporate clients asking us for “team-building” events, I finally realized that if
hanging out at the Alamo can be credited with a lot of our success, maybe if we created an interactive way to hang out at the Alamo then other companies could start being a little bit more like this one. And this one, trust me, is pretty bad ass. So I created the current version of the Downtown Austin Photo Scavenger Hunt with that in mind, and here are just a few of the reasons I think you should get a group together and have a party with us. (Henri)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION, you can click here to visit our full Venue Rental website, or contact our team at venue@originalalamo.com and (512) 407-9531