Posts Tagged ‘Movie’

The Return of OPEN SCREEN NIGHT

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

The New Movement presents
OPEN SCREEN NIGHT
Weds, Feb 10, 9:45pm at the Alamo Ritz
Advance tix available here

It’s back, and this time it’s better than ever! Unless you bring a bunch of crap to the theater, then it’ll be worse than ever! Because for OPEN SCREEN NIGHT, we’re once again handing the reins of our screen over to you and showing absolutely anything you bring to the show.

Want to show off the new short film you just made? Perfect, bring it in. Wanna make everyone watch a particularly uncomfortable clip on YouTube? Just give us the URL and we’ll put it up. Have a favorite home movie or super embarrassing clip of your college roommate? Bring that in, too!

And even if you don’t have anything to show this time, come on out to have your mind blown. You never know what you’re going to see at Open Screen Night, but somewhere in there you’ll definitely get a special treat. And if anything crappy gets shown you’ll only have to suffer through two minutes of it before our gonger can respond to your boos and get that garbage off the screen with one mighty bang on his gong.

We’re teaming up with The New Movement for this OSN relaunch and combining the old school Open Screen format with a touch of our YouTube Party and the Alamo Public Access show from last year. We’re going to curate a few of our favorite videos, show as many submitted videos as possible, and at the end of the night we’re giving away $100 to whoever brings the best video!

Judgment Day comes to the Ritz

Friday, January 22nd, 2010


Action Pack Theater presents
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY

in glorious 35mm with live explosions and gunfire
Sundays, Jan 24 & 31
Advance tickets available here

Take the most badass action movies of all time, bring some new pyrotechnics into the theater that are capable of bringing the explosions onscreen out into the real world, and hand out a few cap guns so select audience members can help the gunfire in the movie come through in a new definition of surround sound, and what do you say? Fuck yeah!

Fuck yeah, you do. For this inaugural screening of Action Pack Theater we’re breaking out the big guns with a full on 35mm film print of TERMINATOR 2 and a whole bevy of new pyro devices we haven’t used at any of our other shows.

And while we’re showing the 35mm print and can’t put any subtitles up on the screen, we’re still gonna bring in some of the Action Pack mainstays by inviting the audience to quote-along to the super key lines, shoot-along to the super key gun battles, and Fuck-Yeah-along to all of the awesomest moments. And no, we don’t know exactly what that means yet, because the first show is this Sunday. But we’re sure it’s going to be incredible.

God damn, I’m excited. When I first saw TERMINATOR 2 in the theater, my brain melted like the T-1000. “Hasta la vista, baby” made its way into my regular vocabulary (hey, I was 14 that year, so lay off!), and the image of the wasteland after Judgment Day was seared into my memories forever. The latest attempt to salvage the Terminator franchise wasn’t the coolest movie ever, but T2 IS the coolest movie ever, and we’re excited to start off ACTION PACK THEATER with the loudest bang possible.
(Henri Mazza)

Get your advance tickets to T2 here, and keep up to date on Action Pack Theater and all of their other shows and parties by following them on Twitter: @theactionpack.

Fantastic Fest Audience Award Winner A TOWN CALLED PANIC opens Friday!

Monday, January 18th, 2010

TOWN CALLED PANICAt our annual festival of horror, fantasy, and all around boom-shakin’ cinema, Fantastic Fest, there was one gem that stood out this year as the audience favorite.  No, it wasn’t some blood-squirt fest from Japan or even a 100% medically accurate film from the Netherlands about sewing people together (but, boy, did those movies kill!).  No, the crowd favorite this year was a Belgium film about a toy cowboy and a toy Indian that fail to build a barbecue.

What?  There must be something really special about this film, an anomaly in a festival full of gore, frights, and terror that would elevate this animated feature to the top spot.  Try, for one, that this film is genuinely funny.  Not funny in a gross out way, not funny in a hoity toity pinky-in-the-air way, but funny in a zany, madcap, and completely non-cynical way.

This film is hilarious, it’s random, it’s fun, but most importantly, it’s imaginative.  The typical toy battle of cowboy and Indian is turned on its head; here, the two action figures are roommates who want to do something nice for their more responsible flatmate, horse.  Once their ineptitude and a few misplaced decimal points get in their way, the three toys embark on a crazy adventure.  But each problem they face is wilder than the last, and each solution is creative and crazy.

You can tell that this film is made by wackos who simply love making people laugh.  It shows that this is a labor of love, a product of self-amusement rather than commercial interest.  If more films were made this way, we’d be in a much more joyful world.

Some quotes from the rags:

“A TOWN CALLED PANIC proves you don’t need fancy CGI techniques, 3-D, or stunt voice casting to make a sparkly little gem”
Leslie Felperin, Variety

“There’s really very little to say about this film beyond that it’s absolutely brilliant”
Peter Brunette, The Hollywood Reporter

town-called-panic-blog“The film’s humor, simultaneously giddy and satirical, is reminiscent of “South Park” and the “Wallace & Gromit” movies, but it’s less pointed, more poetic.”
Mike Hale, New York Times

“I enjoyed this film so much I’m sorry to report it was finally too much of a muchness. You can only eat so much cake. But I don’t think that’s a problem…It has an innocent hallucinatory charm”
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Some Fantastic Fest comments:

“This was such a charming, good-natured, and original comedy. Just perfect.”

“Very, very funny, but the best thing about it was the originality and non-stop ideas.”

“Goodness this is the best claymation feature i have ever seen”

“This one is a classic!!!!”

This absurdist animation is like TOY STORY thrown into a blender with Mike Judge and a Belgian Waffle. Mmmm.  

There will be a special premiere Thursday at midnight at Alamo South Lamar. Tickets are available for that show here. Please note that A TOWN CALLED PANIC opens for a full run on Friday at the Alamo Ritz. For tickets and showtimes, please click here

What happens when David Lynch meets Werner Herzog?

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Lynch and HerzogDavid Lynch, the genius behind MULLHOLLAND DRIVE, BLUE VELVET, ERASERHEAD, and many other head-scratching masterpieces, rarely collaborates in his film art.  In fact, the last two things he produced but did not direct were Terry Zwigoff’s brilliant documentary CRUMB, and “Twin Peaks,” which many people consider to be the greatest television show ever.

Needless to say, when Lynch commits to a project, it’s got to be real good.  And now David Lynch has produced the new film by Werner Herzog, a film titled MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE, that we are opening at the Ritz next Friday.  Herzog, as many of you know, is one of the greatest living filmmakers still working today, directing films like AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD, FITZCARRALDO, GRIZZLY MAN, and, most recently, THE BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL – NEW ORLEANS.

We were pretty excited about BAD LIEUTENANT.  Nearly all of us on the programming team named it one of the five best films of the year, and for good reason: it was artsy but also crazy, the perfect combination for the Alamo Drafthouse.  MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE is Herzog’s follow-up film, another crime story but this time with a notably Lynchian dynamic.  This is a true meeting of the minds between Herzog and Lynch, and the result is one of the most provocative and tormented films of the decade.

On a Lynch scale of weirdness, it falls somewhere between “Twin Peaks” and BLUE VELVET.  It has many of the same qualities and themes from both of those works, but it also has the beautiful humanity and interest in nature and madness that Herzog has mastered over the past few decades of filmmaking.

myson1

This film only opened in New York and Los Angeles, and we had to really fight to get it to come to Austin.  But for good reason: it is going to blow you away.  It is a challenging film, but it is also haunting, rewarding, and unforgettable.  And that, after all, is what the cinema should be about: seeing daring new work that will make you think.

But you don’t have to take our word for it.  While some critics clearly don’t get the film, here are some that are hip to what’s coming from the minds of David Lynch and Werner Herzog:

“A surreal descent into a twilight zone created by the twisted sensibilities of two cinematic geniuses…an antidote to the Oscar-bait blockbusters clogging theaters.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

“Herzog has gone beyond Good and Evil to reinvent himself as a candidate for the wiggiest director of comedy in America today.”
J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

“Viewers will have to decide for themselves whether My Son is a terrible, terrible movie or an uncompromising Herzog experiment in reality-bending. Here’s a suggestion: consider the track record.”
Noel Murray, A/V Club

“A perfect storm of cinematic weirdness…the film’s very oddness achieves a “Twin Peaks” level of artful ingenuity.”
Jeannette Catsoulis, NPR

Be sure to come out for our limited run of one of the most anticipated and talked about films of the year.  Tickets will be available here.

HEY HOMO! presents HEAVENLY CREATURES This Week!

Monday, January 18th, 2010


HEY HOMO! presents HEAVENLY CREATURES
Tuesday, January 19th at the Ritz
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

The next Hey Homo! screening is right around the corner! This time it’s, pre-Lovely-Bones, Peter Jackson’s gorgeous animation-meets-young-Kate-Winslet film, Heavenly Creatures.

This is Peter Jackson’s masterpiece. Pauline and Juliet, two young New Zealand schoolgirls, share an undeniable bond from the moment they meet. Bored with their families and small town, the girls dream up brilliant fantasies and passionate romances that provide them with a more colorful (and often animated) landscape. Eventually, all the sleepovers and handholding is enough to arouse not only the girls, but the eyebrows of their moralistic parents. Threatened with permanent separation, Pauline and Juliet would do just about anything to keep their love intact. That’s when things get nasty. This movie has everything that Hey Homo! has ever hoped to deliver to our audience: hot schoolgirls (and their burning desire for one another), animation and murder.
(Kayla Williams)

Tuesday, January 19th at the Ritz
PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

The Alamo Guide for January 14th!

Thursday, January 14th, 2010
YOUTH IN REVOLT opens Friday at the Ritz
THE ALAMO GUIDE
for January 14th, 2010

Hello again, friends. I hope your days are well. I am here, once again, to tell you how your days could be better: with the Alamo! We are packed full of new release films from the past week or two, and still we find time for specialty programming! HOW DO WE DO IT?! Lots and lots of work hours, that’s how…If you haven’t gone out to see CRAZY HEART yet, tomorrow is the perfect opportunity to do so. Local country honky-tonkers THE DERAILERS are playing an after show at THE HIGHBALL and you can get tickets for both events! If you’re one of those over-planner people, you might want to make some Valentine’s Day plans NOW because our VALENTINE’S DAY FEASTS go ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON! Those sell out super fast and are pretty damn romantic and delicious. Feel like making fun of a bizarro movie this weekend? The Action Pack is showing ROBOT JOX in HECKLEVISION so that you can mock-text to your heart’s content. The 1999 SING-ALONG and the PULP FICTION QUOTE-ALONG are this week, as is the final weekend for MASTER PANCAKE’S FORREST GUMP! Many more things are a foot, dear readers. Read on.

Be sure to keep an eye on the Alamo Drafthouse Blog for up-to-date information and last minute awesomeness, and check out our Twitter feeds (further down on the page) to be updated on our awesome lives.

Thursday, January 14th at S. Lamar
THE DERAILERS after show at The Highball

We’re pleased to announce that Austin’s own rockin’, honky-tonkin’, roots-raging superstars THE DERAILERS will be playing at The Highball LIVE! following a screening of CRAZY HEART.

The film starts at 7 PM, and the band will hit the stage at The Highball around 9:30 PM, giving you plenty of time to knock back a few and lace up your dancing shoes. Tickets are available for both the show & the movie, or you can just go see the band! Either way, it’s the Texan thing to do.

The film: Four-time Academy Award nominee Jeff Bridges stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film CRAZY HEART from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer
who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Golden Globe nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

“It’s a juicy, career-crowning role, and Bridges – a master of subtle brilliance – plays the hell out of it.” - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Sunday, February 14th at the Ritz!

It’s no secret that we take food and movies very seriously, but occasionally we like to get a little lovey dovey with both of those things. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to bust out our chefs’ mad skills, tasty foods and romantic movies, so just like every year, we have three Valentine’s Day Feasts for you and your chosen V Day partner to celebrate with.

TICKETS FOR ALL FEASTS GO ON SALE THIS FRIDAY, JANUARY 15TH AT NOON! TICKETS WILL BE $75 FOR ALL COURSES PLUS WINE PAIRINGS.

GONE WITH THE WIND Valentine’s Day Feast at the Alamo Ritz

This is the quintessential American story, and it is portrayed through the most memorable love affair to hit the movies. Bring a loved one and snuggle up as Rhett frankly doesn’t give a damn. Kiss over champagne and eat our fine feast as Scarlett promises, “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!” Enjoy the beautiful color cinematography, grand orchestra score, and enthralling love story with us on Valentine’s Day. But be warned: buy your tickets quick, as they will soon be Gone with the Wind.

Menu and wine pairings prepared by Ritz chef Elijah Horgan!

CHARADE Valentine’s Day Feast at Alamo South Lamar

Hepburn is delightful here as a young wife who gets wrapped up in a tale of espionage, deception, mystery and, of course, romance. Cary Grant delivers what very well may be his final great performance as the smooth-talking charmer he perfected in Alfred Hitchcock’s celebrated films (SUSPICION, NOTORIOUS, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, etc). This film is remembered for having an interesting reversal of gender roles. Audrey Hepburn, rather than the handsome Cary Grant, is the pursuer in their relationship. She comes on strong as Grant tries — unsuccessfully of course — to avoid her advances. This is one of the main reasons we are showing it as part of our special Valentine’s Day Feast series. Ladies, come on strong to your sweethearts at this screening, cooing and lash-batting your way to a romantic holiday. Men, come for Cary Grant’s great suits, come for the hilarious repartee between the two leads, or come to get cooed at.

Five-course feast menu and wine pairings prepared by Alamo executive chef John Bullington!

AMELIE Valentine’s Day Feast at the Alamo Village

If not the most charming movie of all time, AMELIE is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives, but in her own unusual ways. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won’t, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world. With whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her cafe. She reverses the doorknobs of a grocer who’s mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of
all.

Opens January 22nd at S. Lamar

It’s hard to believe that a stop motion animated Belgian film about
a reckless Cowboy, his best friend the Indian, a super cool horse, and larcenous underwater gill-men could cause all the hard-boiled,
seen-it-all programmers at the Alamo and Fantastic Fest to fall all
over themselves, but that’s exactly the case. We laughed so hard and long at this movie that when it was over, we knew we had to bring it to Austin. The problem was, they weren’t planning on releasing it in Austin. So we have jumped through flaming hoops to bring it to you. Would we do that if this movie were anything less than an ATOMIC BOMB of righteousness?

Series creators Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar are surely two of the most manic animators of our times, completely and utterly in touch with their inner children. No joke is too silly, no gag too bizarre for this pair. They’ve reined in their stream of consciousness urges slightly for the feature – PANIC started life as a series of five minute shorts for Belgian television – but just barely, oddity heaped upon oddity as though the two were engaged in a non-stop game of one-upmanship throughout the entire production cycle. Juvenile and absurd are perfectly good descriptors when talking about PANIC, though only if accompanied by ‘brilliant’ and ‘hysterical’. It’s time for the cult to cross the ocean. (Todd Brown)

Enter the TOWN CALLED PANIC stop-motion filmmaking contest to be part of the film’s video release next year! Details HERE!

YOUTH IN REVOLT

Now playing at the Ritz

YOUTH IN REVOLT is a coming-of-age comedy that puts a fresh and
outrageous stamp on a tale of adolescent obsession and rebellion.
Starring Michael Cera (JUNO, SUPERBAD) and based on the acclaimed novel by C.D. Payne, YOUTH IN REVOLT is the story of Nick Twisp – a unique, but affable teen with a taste for the finer things in life like Sinatra and Fellini – who falls hopelessly in love with the beautiful, free-spirited Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday) while on a family vacation. But family, geography and jealous ex-lovers conspire to keep these two apart. With Sheeni’s encouragement, Nick abandons his dull, predictable life and develops a rebellious alter ego: Francois. With his ascot, his moustache and his cigarette, Francois will stop at nothing to be with Sheeni, and leads Nick Twisp on a path of destruction with unpredictable and uproarious consequences.

With Zach Galifianakis, Justin Long, Fred Willard, Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart and Ray Liotta.

Friday and Saturday at the Ritz

For a two-week limited run encore, Master Pancake is going to boil,
bake, batter and fry the beloved 90’s classic FORREST GUMP. Featuring
Tom Hanks (THE MONEY PIT, JOE VS. THE VOLCANO) as a good-hearted
shrimp-baron whose hobbies include jogging, playing ping-pong, eating
chocolate and telling long boring stories. Also featuring Sally Field
(THE FLYING NUN, GIDGET GOES HAWAIIAN) as momma Gump, Gary Sinise (CSI,
that kidnapping movie with Mel Gibson) as Gump’s “bosom buddy” Cap’n
Dan and Robin Wright Penn (THE PRINCESS BRIDE) as Gump’s baby momma.
Come join Master Pancake as they give new meaning to “Run,Forrest, Run”
and gleefully pursue this overrated icon. (John)

MASTER PANCAKE IS PROUDLY PRESENTED BY KERBEY LANE CAFE.

Thurs., Jan. 14th at the Ritz & Fri., Jan 15th at Village

Immediately after we finished putting the 1997 Sing-Along together,
Caitlin and I were perusing the hit songs of other years in the ’90s
and realized that as amazing as 1997 was, 1999 was just plain
incredible. Holy crap. Not only did 1999 give birth to almost all of
the pop music of the next ten years by giving us Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” and Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” but the cheese element was in full effect with the Goo Goo Dolls, rap was awesome with “Back That Ass Up” AND Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West” AND Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A…” Plus we got Beck’s “Sexx Laws,” Lauryn Hill, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Hot damn. So join us at the Ritz this January while we go back to a time when we weren’t sure if there was ever going to be a 2010 because we still weren’t sure if Y2K would kill us all. Save tonight!

Get tickets to the Thursday Ritz showing HERE!

Get tickets to the Friday MIDNIGHT Village showing HERE!

Win tickets to LE GARAGE SALE at every show!!

Le Garage Sale is a two day shopping event of Austin’s coolest independent boutiques all under one roof  at awesome clearance sale prices!!! “It’s the SXSW of local rocking shopping!” Happy LGS Shopper.

Thurs., Jan. 14th at the Ritz & Weds, Jan. 20th at Village

Most of our Quote-Along shows in the past have been comedies, because saying punchlines out loud with a room full of other fans is just plain fun. But even though PULP FICTION is classified as a crime thriller, it’s some seriously funny shit and obviously full of tons of amazingly quotable lines.

We’re going to subtitle all of our favorite lines karaoke style, then we’re gonna fill the audience with cap guns so after you yell out, “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!” we can turn the show into a Shoot-Along as well. And of course we’ll have plenty of Royale With Cheese burgers available all night long, and you can walk into a movie theater in Austin and buy a beer. But if you put mayonnaise on your French fries we’re still gonna make fun of you, because we’re in America.

Our names don’t mean shit, but we might accidentally shoot you in the face anyway. (Henri Mazza)

The Quote-Along series is brought to you in part by THE NEW MOVEMENT. Wanna learn to write your own quotable material? Come out to the show for a chance to win $50 gift certificates for improv and comedy classes with TNM!

Get tickets to the Thursday Ritz showing HERE!

Get tickets to the Wednesday Village showing HERE!

Sunday through Wednesday at the Ritz

Star Emily Hagins in person for Jan 17 show!

“It’s rare that a film can capture both the passions of our youth and the passions of our adult lives. But this heartwarming and nerve racking documentary captures all of the stress of low-budget indie filmmaking and all of the wonder of childhood ambition and excitement.”
– Sam Roberts, Director of Film Competitions, Slamdance

Winner of the Spirit award at the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, ZOMBIE GIRL is a documentary about the making of the no-budget zombie movie PATHOGEN. What truly makes the subject of this documentary special is the fact that PATHOGEN is directed by Austin-native Emily Hagins, a resourceful, driven and talented 12 year-old filmmaker. Her
story is beautiful and touching, and truly comments on the nature of independent moviemaking as well as what “coming-of-age” means for the YouTube generation.

Sunday, January 17th at the Ritz

In a post-World War III world, war has become outlawed and disputes between the super powers are now settled by genetically enhanced super soldiers known as Robot Jox who operate skyscraper-sized robots that combine to become the ultimate killing machines. Stuart Gordon’s entry into the way-too short-lived subgenre of robot warrior movies of the early 1990s has all the flash and bang of a young Michael Bay on a shoestring budget. Joe Haldeman, whose sole film credit is this movie, creates verbal poetry with lines like “I kill you already… (points to head) in here.,” and “You make my drink taste like blood!” Audio pearls fly at you fast and furiously as the world’s two biggest super powers, The Market (good) and The Confederation (bad), face off in a battle for Alaska. A film about gigantic robots battling it out in exotic locales can’t be bad, and that’s why it makes for a perfect billing for this month’s Hecklevision! Gordon tried to make a live action anime, and I dare say he more than succeeds. Throw in an over the top Texan named “Tex” (duh!) who serves as a glorified one man cheerleading squad, and a menacing evil Russian bad guy named “Alexander”(double duh!) whose robot has a gigantic chainsaw penis, and you got yourself a party. So come on out, arm yourselves with your texting devices, and call yourselves “Techno Jox” as you battle it out for the best Heckle, because in this new age of war, it’s not over until somebody wins.
(Greg MacLennan)

HEY HOMO!: HEAVENLY CREATURES

Tuesday, January 19th at the Ritz

This is Peter Jackson’s masterpiece. Pauline and Juliet, two young New Zealand schoolgirls, share an undeniable bond from the moment they meet. Bored with their families and small town, the girls dream up brilliant fantasies and passionate romances that provide them with a more colorful (and often animated) landscape. Eventually, all the sleepovers and handholding is enough to arouse not only the girls, but the eyebrows of their moralistic parents. Threatened with permanent separation, Pauline and Juliet would do just about anything to keep their love intact. That’s when things get nasty. This movie has everything that Hey Homo! has ever hoped to deliver to our audience: hot schoolgirls (and their burning desire for one another), animation and murder. (Kayla Williams)

Wednesday, January 20th at the Ritz

ALAMO IRON CHEF VI: THE BATTLE FOR SIXTH STREET
TICKETS ARE $80 AND THEY ARE ON SALE NOW RIGHT HERE!

For years, we have been producing food-and-film-themed events at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Probably our favorite yet is the Alamo Iron Chef competitions, in which we have pitted our chefs against each other or against a local fine-dining establishment, with the proceeds going to charity.

The stage is now set for Iron Chef Alamo Round VI, in which the Alamo chefs John Bullington and Elijah Horgan will team up at the Ritz against the acclaimed kitchen of Parkside Austin, located just across the street. Bullington and Horgan are experienced pros at creating movie feasts but Parkside chef Shawn Cirkiel and his staff are no amateurs. It should be a mighty battle. The film will be the classic New Orleans heartbreak gumbo, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. Alamo founder Tim League will be donning the red kimono of Chairman Kaga.

The premise is similar to the popular TV show but the secret ingredient in this battle is not green peppers or foie gras, it is celluloid. Each contestant will deliver to each of the 100 attendees a series of 4 dishes (that’s 8 dishes in all folks!) themed to a film. 4 wine courses will also be provided. At the end of the show, the audience will decide whose meals were tastier and more cleverly matched and timed to the movie.

Proceeds from this evening will benefit 6ixth Street Austin, a non-profit organization that aims to preserve and enhance the district’s unique historic character and create a vibrant cultural community for today’s and future generations.

Wednesday, January 20th at the Ritz

NERD ALERT!! Normally, we take on full-length movies, but for one night only, Master Pancake will be boldly mocking the greatest sci-fi
Television series of all time: STAR TREK. And because Master Pancake couldn’t agree on which is the best iteration of the TV series (John is a fan of original STAR TREK, Joe loves NEXT GENERATION) we’ll be showing – and mocking – one episode from both eras. John will finally get to satisfy his Shatner boner; Joe will finally get to unleash all his pent-up Tasha Yar jokes; and the audience will reap the rewards of our collective nerd juice. The only losers tonight will be fans of the lame-ass VOYAGER and DEEP SPACE NINE. This will be the most memorable meeting of Enterprise captains since GENERATIONS! ONE NIGHT ONLY!! (John)

MASTER PANCAKE IS PROUDLY PRESENTED BY KERBEY LANE CAFE.

Monday, January 18th at the Ritz

Sponsored by Austin’s greatest music store, End of an Ear Records, and Austin’s most essential vintage furniture and decor store, Room Service.

Less than 24 hours after Martin Luther King’s assassination the city of Boston was in a state of turmoil. When James Brown arrived at the airport to play his already scheduled show he was warned that the mayor, fearing further unrest among the African American community, planned to cancel the show. Brown assured the mayor that the consequences would be much worse if the concert was called off. Not only did the show go on as planned, public television station WGBH broadcast the whole thing. It’s an incredible historical document and a fantastic performance by James Brown, who dedicated the show to Dr. King’s memory and brought the raw emotions within himself and his
community to a searing head. At one point the restless crowd swarms the stage and amidst the mayhem James Brown tells the cops to stay back and calmly talks the crowd back into their seats. “This isn’t how black people should act.” Riveting.

Tuesday, January 19th at the Ritz

Pure pulse-blasting entertainment for only a buck! SPONSORED BY VULCAN VIDEO!!!

A physically fit alien warrior delights in harvesting human victims
until he’s engaged in a major volley of explosive, lethal firepower by
an Eastern European bodybuilder. No, I’m not talking about the movie PREDATOR. This film–from the second unit director of the movie PREDATOR–stars Dolph Lundgren as a narcotics officer who goes chin-to-chin with a ‘roid-raging albino drug dealer from the outer reaches of the universe. This unearthly heroin vampire is armed with a wide assortment of impossible weapons, from his head-splitting fist spike to a series of razor-lazer frisbees that whiz through the night and straight into your jugular. Lundgren is aided in his interplanetary Aryan-vs-Aryan deathmatch by a long-haired alien cop and an FBI goofball who makes wry comic observations while our species teeters on the brink of extermination. Filmed in entirely in Houston, TX, which was unfortunately not actually half-obliterated by the futuristic arsenal of a psychotic space jerk. (Zack)

Wednesday, January 20th at the Ritz

PRESENTED BY I LUV VIDEO!

A quick glance at the marketing materials for LORD LOVE A DUCK would probably give the impression of another teen-appeal 60’s beach party movie, but a closer look at the tagline, “An Act Of Pure Aggression” is sure to leave viewers confused. And sure enough, there’s far more here than meets the eye. I’ll just dive in. Roddy McDowall plays a sort of genie or guardian angel named Mollymauk, after a type of extinct bird. He magically appears to beautiful, mixed up cheerleader Tuesday Weld and offers to grant her wishes. They all come true – for instance she is cast in a movie called BIKINI WIDOW and lands the man of her dreams,
but then they take a bad twist like the fingers on a monkey’s paw. Along the way, every aspect of modern American society circa 1965 is bitterly ridiculed. And while such sitting targets as psychoanalysis, bikini beach movies and car culture weren’t exactly sacred cows even then, the machine-gun quality of the satire and the churning bile underneath the humor is notable. Writer/director George Axelrod described it as “a non-optimistic get well card. LORD LOVE A DUCK is against teenagers, their parents, movies, cars, school and several hundred other things.” The cast is brilliant, with Tuesday Weld in particular giving the performance of a lifetime. Also with Lola Albright and the great Ruth Gordon. (Lars)

Wednesday, January 20th at the Ritz

Director Nancy Schiesari and singer/songwriter James Collette in attendance.

Through an exploration of the tattoos on the bodies of American
soldiers, Nancy Schiesari looks into the psyches of young men and women before they leave for Iraq and/or Afghanistan and after they return from deployment. The tattoos they get after their return are often quite different from the ones they got before going into battle. The images on their bodies tell us so much about their states of mind and the changes in their views, both positive and negative. It is a brilliant film which takes us beyond the evening news, the statistics, and the talking heads. Unfortunately TATTOOED UNDER FIRE has achieved a different kind of relevance from being set at Ft. Hood before a terrorist’s attack made even that refuge not so safe as before.

Tickets are available at www.austinfilm.org or at the door.

Tuesday, January 26th at the Village

Ohhh LORDY! The final season is coming so so soon, so to prep up we’re showing the ridiculously stressful Season 5 Finale at the Village a week before the Season 6 Premiere! We want to get you into the LOST groove ahead of time so you can prepare yourself mentally and physically. Shit’s gonna get stressful, y’all. Get ready.

LOST has become our most popular TV @ the Alamo Presentation. As such we highly advise that you get to the theater 45 minutes before our showtime so you can get a good seat. These shows are all FREE, but you can purchase a $5 food and beverage voucher online to reserve your
seat. If you choose to “walk-up” instead, be advised that you still need to go by the box office to get a ticket, and that it may be full ahead of time.

Thursday, January 28th at the Village

With special prizes and giveaways from VICE Magazine.

A dramatized portrait of West Virginia’s “Dancing Outlaw,” Jesco White (Edward Hogg), who turned his back on a misspent youth to learn an Appalachian tap-dancing style called “mountain dancing” made famous by his father, D. Ray White.

When his dad is murdered, Jesco uses mountain dancing to exorcise his impulse to get revenge, but soon his thirst for justice becomes too strong to dance away.

Carrie Fisher co-stars!

NEW PARKING DISCOUNT FOR ALAMO RITZ!
WOO! EASY DOWNTOWN PARKING!

We all know that parking downtown can be a small hassle. While there’s usually some meter parking a few blocks from the theater, driving around and searching for that can be tiresome, and what if you’re carrying a cinder block with you to the theater cause you want to use it as a booster seat? That block is HEAVY!

Which is why we’ve partnered with the parking garage at 7th and San Jacinto and convinced them to open on days they were previously closed, as well as to provide a $2.00 discount from their regular rates to anyone who returns to their car with an Alamo ticket stub. Just pay the
full price on your way in, then stop by the attendant with stub in hand on your way back to your car, and you’ll get a $2 refund. Easy parking, good deals, and all just a block away from the Ritz.

At this point that discount will unfortunately NOT apply on Friday and Saturday, but if we show them how loyal Alamo customers can be, we might be able to swing a discount on the weekends at some point in the future as well. Look for the Alamo sign on the parking garage in the next week or so, and we’ll see you downtown!

The garage is on 211 E. 7th St, Southwest Tower garage.

Big thanks to HOSPITALITY PARKING for helpin’ us out!

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)
Brad Parrett: @AlamoBrad (Programmer/Booking)

Zack Carlson: @ZackAlamo (Programmer/Terror Tues Coordinator)

Caitlin Stevens: @CaitlinEStevens (Programmer/Promotions)

Sing-Along/Quote-Along info: @TheActionPack
Alamo Drafthouse information: @Drafthouse
Fantastic Fest information: @FantasticFest
MondoTees information: @MondoNews

SERVICE INDUSTRY NIGHT!

Sunday Nights at the Alamo Village!

UPDATE! While teachers may not be part of the service industry, they work their asses off trying to make kids not stupid and stuff. With that in mind, we think they deserve a break as well! Teachers, you are now welcome to the discounts of Service Industry Night! Take a load off! Have a drink!If you work in the service industry, you deserve a break! Bring your I.D. and current pay stub from your service industry job to any Sunday, post-9:30pm screening at the Alamo Village and get in for just $5! Or purchase your ticket online and bring your pay stub to the box office before the show. We’ll also have the Working Man’s Beer Bucket special available at these shows for just $12!

Ticket rate applicable to any feature that’s accepting passes and special pricing. Some new releases exempt for first two weeks.

Want your own private theater for S.I.N? Contact Ashley Hall for details of special service industry packages available for venue rentals!

That’s what we’ve got for this one. Let us know what you think, and we’ll see you at theater.

SAY WHAT AGAIN! I DARE YOU! I DOUBLE DARE YOU!

Caitlin Stevens
Twitter: @caitlinestevens
Alamo on Facebook

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

Weekly Showtimes:
NEW RELEASES
YOUTH IN REVOLT

Michael Cera as an adorable badass. Now playing at the Ritz. Click Here to get tickets now!
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS

Terry Gilliam directs Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Colin Ferrell and Jude Law. Whoa! Now playing at S. Lamar! Click Here for tix!
CRAZY HEART

Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal in a touching, country-style film. Now playing at S. Lamar! Click Here for tix!
DAYBREAKERS

Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and lotsa vampires! Now playing at the Village! Click Here to get tickets now!
A TOWN CALLED PANIC

Belgian stop-motion animation that made us laugh ’til it hurt at Fantastic Fest! Opens next week at S. Lamar! Click Here to get tickets now!
RENT THE RITZ FOR SPECIAL EVENTS!

Host your next event at our theater! Click Here for more information!
BRUNCH AT THE ALAMO!

All weekend screenings before 2pm now have a brunch menu available! Click Here to see the menu!

DOES MARCELLUS WALLACE LOOK LIKE A BITCH?!

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

pulp-fiction-webThe Action Pack: THE PULP FICTION QUOTE-ALONG
Wednesday, January 13th at the Village – TICKETS
Thursday, January 14th at the Ritz – TICKETS

We will have BIG KAHUNA BURGERS ($9.99 – comes with a free sprite to wash it down!), $5 MILKSHAKES ($5.. duh), and ROYALE WITH CHEESEs at all screenings!

Everybody knows what Marcellus Wallace looks like, and he does not look like a bitch. So we’re not gonna try to f*ck him like a bitch. Instead, we’re gonna sit and watch Samuel Jackson in one of his most badass roles, and we’re gonna drink some $5 milkshakes and quote-along with one of Tarantino’s best films.

We’re going to yell out all of our favorite lines along with the characters, then we’re gonna give EVERYONE in the audience a cap gun of their very own
, so when Sammy J. says, “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!” we can turn the show into a Shoot-Along as well.

And of course we’ll have plenty of Royale With Cheese burgers available all night long, and you can walk into a movie theater in Austin and buy a beer. But if you put mayonnaise on your French fries we’re still gonna make fun of you, because we’re in America. Our names don’t mean shit, but we might accidentally shoot you in the face anyway.

TICKETS FOR THE VILLAGE SCREENING TONIGHT (Jan. 13th) CAN BE PURCHASED HERE.

TICKETS FOR THE RITZ SCREENING THURSDAY (Jan. 14th) CAN BE PURCHASED HERE.

Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash Trailer

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Check it out folks! I just finished editing the 2010 Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash show and trailer. The show is under wraps until Monday, January 25, but you can get a taste by watching the embedded trailer below:

After the opening show on the 25th, join us at Domy Books (913 E Cesar Chavez) for giveaways, drinks and music.

Tickets and info here.

Alamo Programmers’ Top 10 of ‘09 CONTINUED!

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

So I’ve been out of town for the past week, and I missed the epic lists that everyone else in the office produced. I thought I’d add my two cents as well, because I have watched a bazillion movies this year and I felt left out! Not really, but I just wanted to throw some stuff out there. Also, I was too intimidated by a top 20 of the decade list, so instead I’m just going to add a “Top 10 Suckiest Movies of ‘09″ list – which may or may not be 10 movies.

CAITLIN’S TOP 10

These are kind of based more on my initial reaction upon seeing them, which also includes surrounding crowd, location, etc.

1. ZOMBIELAND

If you got to see this at the Paramount during Fantastic Fest last year, then many of you may agree with me. I went into this movie with absolutely no expectations.. well, actually, I went in with terrible expectations. I thought the trailer looked stupid, and the premise was unoriginal. And then the movie started, and the slow motion opening credits with the little girl princess zombies and the soccer mom flying through the window happened, and with the rest of the crowd, I was sold. I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much fun in a premiere than I did then. Major props to Ruben Fleischer.

2. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Okay, I know a lot of people are gonna jump on the hate train with this one but I DON’T CARE I LOVED THIS MOVIE. Yes, I was initially sold on the gorgeous trailer with the Arcade Fire background song. Yes, I watched it at a midnight screening when I was both physically and mentally exhausted after a really stressful week. Yes, The Blindside trailer which was on right before it made me start crying before the film even started. All of those things made me cry like a like a baby the ENTIRE movie and I was so in love with that adorable little boy. Spike Jonze teamed with Karen O made this one of the most memorable movies ever for me. Love it.

3. UP

You have no soul if you didn’t like Up. I have never been more impressed with Pixar. From when I saw the opening 40 minutes (roughly animated) at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 2008 and got so, so excited and cried even then, I knew this was going to be an amazing movie. The 3D was gorgeous, the mixture of an old man living out his dead wife’s dreams with a little boy from a broken home trying to win his father’s love and an adorable dog who hides under your porch because he loves you – ugh – too much – I’m about to cry just thinking about it. Again, I’m a total baby.

4. STAR TREK

Um AWESOME! No, I didn’t get to see the amazing premiere with Leonard Nemoy, and I was a little broken hearted because of that. But when I did finally see it, I was entertained the entire way through! Sure, the lens flares were a bit excessive, but the characters were dead on and I love me a Scottish Simon Pegg. Win. Also, Zack Carlson liked it, so it’s got that going for it too.

5. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

This was another film where the atmosphere made the screening even greater. At Cinemapocalypse, when we knew Quentin Tarantino was premiering his film here, we had four giant Nazi flag banners hand crafted by two adorable little ladies to hang in our large theater at the Ritz. Tarantino had no idea, and so when those banners dropped in the theater, and the crowd went crazy, and Tarantino’s mind was blown after the screening, that put Basterds up on my list. The movie was excellent too, no doubt.

6. MOON

Oh, Sam Rockwell, how I adore thee. I got to catch this masterpiece at SXSW last year after knowing absolutely nothing about it. I LOVED that it used models in exchange for CGI, and I loved that there were multiple Sam Rockwell’s all over the place. It was sweet, it was creepy, and Kevin Spacey was a smiley-face robot.

7. FANTASTIC MR. FOX

It took me three weeks after this film came out to finally see it but I’m SO GLAD I DID! I was hesitant about the trailers, because for some reason I kept missing the part where it said “from Wes Anderson” – when I finally heard that part though, I got excited! The animation turned out to be really great, and the characters were super cute. Also, if you got to try the smoked duck pizza – YUM!

8. AWAY WE GO

This movie was so goddamn sweet, and I couldn’t get enough of Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski together. Fucking adorable. There’s a high possiblity that this movie will make you a little baby crazy, but really it’ll just make you smile. Also, Paul Schneider is in it for a little bit, Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a crazy hippie “eat organic and breastfeed ’til they’re 12″ mama, and there are little children singing “So Long, Farewell.” Too cute, I could eat it up.

9. LAND OF THE LOST

I know, I know, just hear me out on this one. No, I would not really consider this movie to be a piece of quality film making, BUT – Danny McBride is so goddamn funny in this movie that I had to put it in (and I’m sorry, but Will Ferrell’s not that bad either). Okay, look. Next time you’re hungover, and you’ve made your brain a little fuzzy with whatever hangover cure you use, put in Land of the Lost, wait half an hour for Danny McBride to be in it, and just try not to chuckle. It’s impossible! This is a borderline kids movie with some pretty raunchy jokes. It’s pure silliness. No, it’s not going to win a fuckin’ Oscar, but I’ve watched this movie a few times, and I still love it.

10. ANTICHRIST

Honestly, I don’t even know if I really like this movie or not. I think I do. What I really know is this: when I saw this movie at 11am during Fantastic Fest, the whole rest of my day (and the next couple of days) was spent trying to figure out what the fuck I just watched. It completely invaded my brain. Charlotte Gainsbourg does give an amazing performance, as does Willem Dafoe. It’s shot beautifully, and Lars Von Trier managed to creep me the hell out. I want to see this movie again, and yet I’m not sure if I wish that I had seen it in the first place. It wins a spot on my Top 10 because it melted my brain.

And now – a few movies that pissed me off this year. Please do not be offended if these are your favorite movies. In reality, my opinion does not matter!

1. MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D – UGH! I saw this unfortunate film during BNAT. I was all “oh no! a scary movie! what do I do?!” and then BAM! Guess what movie, you were not scary! You were dumb! Oh wow! You’re in 3D?! AWESOME! FYI – 3D shit flying at your face is still shit.

2. 500 DAYS OF SUMMER – I didn’t necessarily hate this movie, but I greatly disliked it. Originally, I thought, “oh no, this is going to be a Zooey Deschanel quirk-fest!” Turns out, I didn’t dislike her in it, but it was Joseph-Gordon Levitt who drove me up the wall. Quit yer whining JGL, nobody likes a whiner.

3. THE UGLY TRUTH – To be fair, I only made it through half of this film. I can only take so much misogyny and sexism. Sorry!

I avoided most of the other bad movies this year. I’ll hold my tongue on my opinion of the Twilight films and other such things that have a big fan base, because really, I just don’t understand it, and it’s not really my place to knock things that I don’t understand… even though I do in one on one conversation. So yeah, if you wanna know, hit me up.

Oscar-Worthy? Christian McKay IS Orson Welles…

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Last week I had the opportunity to check out the new opus ME AND ORSON WELLES by local film hero Richard Linklater. While I was rather disappointed to miss the chance to sing a High School Musical duet with Zac Efron at the Highball after-party (I had been practicing Start of Something New), I was elated to witness one of the greatest acting performances I’ve seen in a long time. Newcomer Christian McKay bursts on to the screen with an incredible tour-de-force performance as a very young Orson Welles in the throes of producing his now-legendary stage production of JULIUS CAESAR. Brash, bold, brilliant, arrogant and truly childish, the gigantic personality of one of cinema’s greatest auteurs was brought to life with such realism that I often lost the sense that I was watching a modern film and felt I was instead viewing archival footage of Welles holding court.

ME AND ORSON WELLES opens Friday at the Alamo South Lamar.  We’re hoping that this one falls into the category of “the little film that could.” There’s very little national-level promotion and the lead is a total unknown, but if you A) want to see one of the most electrifying performances of the year, B) love Shakespeare or Orson Welles or C) fantasize about singing duets with Zac Efron (the “me” of ORSON WELLES AND ME), then this is your sure-bet movie ticket this weekend.

Tickets and info here.