Kevin Smith Live In Person

Fantastic Fest presents
ZACK & MIRI MAKE A PORNO
U.S. Premiere with Kevin Smith Live
Followed by the World Air Sex Championships
Thursday, Sept 18 at the Paramount Theater

Tickets on sale this Saturday, August 30, at Noon at GetTix.net.

***

We're kicking off Fantastic Fest this year with an opening night event that's literally like nothing else we've ever done. That's because for the very first time, we're putting on an event at the Paramount Theater. Why would we leave our own much-beloved homes? Because we're more than just a little excited about the opening night of the festival, and we want as many people as possible to be able to attend.

ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO is the new film from Kevin Smith starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as lifelong platonic friends who decide to make an adult film together as a way of resolving their cashflow problems. As the cameras roll, however, the duo begin to sense that they may have more feelings for each other than they previously thought, and things get complicated.

But the U.S. premiere of that film is just where the evening gets started. After the film, we'll of course have an amazing Q&A / storytelling session with Kevin. And before we leave the theater, we'll have crowned the first World Air Sex Champion and seen performances from all of the top competitors of the 2008 season.

If you've already got your Fantastic Fest badge, you've got all you need to get into the Opening Night festivities. If you can't make it out for the entire festival this year, you can purchase tickets and choose which seats you want online at www.GetTix.net - they go on sale this Saturday at noon and are sure to sell out, so don't miss your chance.

Must-See Doc of the Week:

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED
Playing This Week at the Alamo Ritz
Sun, Aug 24 : Tues, Aug 26 : Weds, Aug 27

In early 1978, Roman Polanski pled guilty to 'unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor' after allegations that he fed alcohol and 1/2 a quaalude to 13-year old Samantha Gailey before forcing himself on her. While out on bail for psychiatric evaluation, he quickly fled the United States to avoid incarceration, never to set foot on American soil again. As sinister as Polanski's actions are, this brand new [unauthorized] documentary does not take aim the director himself, but rather at the rabid press corps and the power-abusing, celebrity-drunk judge whose vanity revealed a whole different kind of perversion. Featuring archival footage of Polanski (and as his infamously murdered wife, Sharon Tate), interviews from both sides of the aisle, including the victim herself and Hollywood friends and numerous clips from Polanski's own films.

UNNECESSARY SEQUELS

WATCH AND VOTE!

Last month, we issued a challenge at FilmmakingFrenzy.com - make a trailer for a movie that would be a sequel to a Hollywood film that should never, ever have a sequel made.

Ninety-six filmmaking teams responded and said that they could do it, but six weeks later only 23 had managed to finish their trailers. Amazingly, however, all 22 of those films have something really cool in them.

We'll be showing the Top 10 films and awarding prizes at the BEST OF UNNECESSARY SEQUELS screening this Sunday night at the Ritz, but before we get there, I'd like to invite you to be one of the judges.

Head over to FilmmakingFrenzy.com, create a User ID, and you can watch and vote for your favorite films. We'll be pulling the list of the Top Ten by tomorrow night, so head over to Filmmaking Frenzy and be part of the contest now!

Need more convincing? Just look at all the titles we've got in this year's contest:

Alien Vs. Predator Vs. Rocky

Bonnie & Clyde: Resurrection

Charlotte's Web 2: All the Pig's Men

Close Encounters of the 4th Kind

Clue 2: Hint

Fatal Attraction 2: The Bunny-Boiler's Back

Fight Club 2

Harold & Maude II: A Love for the Ages

It's A Wonderful Life 2: Wings of Vengeance

Little Miss Horsesh*t

OTT: The Rise of Mike Hawk

Over the Top 2: Armageddon

Powder 2: Powder to the People

Sixth Sense 2: Brokeback City

Snakes On A Train... Again!

The Brunch Punch

The Eighth Seal

The Monster Squad 2

The Real Outsiders

The Seventh Sense

The Zapruder Film 2: Declassified

Willy Wonka: Requiem for a Cocoa Bean

5 to 9: It's No Way To Make A Living

And if you'd like to watch the ten best films and see the filmmakers' faces when they win this Sunday, you can get tickets to the screening at the Ritz right here.

THE JERK Quote-Along Mini-Feast

Thursday, August 21 at the Ritz!

Enjoy Steve Martin's classic comedy with all the fanfare of a Quote-Along and all the glutenous goodness of an Alamo Mini-Feast! This is Steve Martin at his absolute absurdiest, featuring subtitles on key lines so we can all yell them out together, paddleballs for everyone in the audience, kazoos for humming along with Tonight You Belong To Me, and a special menu of JERK-inspired delights prepared by Chef Trish Eichelberger, all guaranteed to let you know you're *somebody*!

Check out the menu for the Mini-Feast below, and grab your tickets to this Thursday's show here.

I
“Tuna Fish with Mayonnaise on White Bread”
Tuna Poke in a Lemon Caper Aioli on Sourdough toast points

II
“Pizza in a Cup with Snails on the Plate”
An Herbed Pizza Dough Crust Filled With a Spicy Bolognese Sauce Italian Sausage, Portobellos and Sweet Peppers. Served with a Small Salad of Mixed Greens and a Single Escargot En Croute

III
“Two Twinkies and a Tab”
Battered and Deep Fried Twinkies With a Dr. Pepper Sauce (because tab tastes gross)

Plus, get to the theater early, and see your name in print! Well, if you're still listed in the phonebook, anyway...

And if you can't make it down to the Mini-Feast, you can still enjoy free Pizza-In-A-Cup at the regular Quote-Along on August 28. Tickets for that show are available right here.

What's happening to my special purpose???

TROPIC THUNDER at the Ritz!

TROPIC THUNDER is now playing at the Ritz and the Village, and we're more than just a little excited. We were looking forward to seeing Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance as the Australian method actor who dyes his skin so he can play a black man even BEFORE we completely went gaga over him in IRON MAN at the beginning of the summer. Now that he's our number one leading man of the summer? Definitely.

Spirits were high after the sneak preview screening we had last week, too, and even people who had gone through "The Shit" and been pelted with paintball guns loved the whole night. You can check out a video of that experience here, and then imagine how much you'll enjoy the film if the only thing you're pelted with is great drink specials.

And speaking of drink specials, of course we've got two liquor specials going on right now at the Ritz, and both will be available at all screenings of TROPIC THUNDER. Check it out:

Tropic Thunder on the Rocks
Spiced Rum mixed with orange, papaya and lime juice

The Pineapple Express
House infused vanilla vodka with a dash of amaretto, pineapple juice and grenadine

Get tickets to TROPIC THUNDER here, and we'll see you in The Shit.

Music Monday: PERFORMANCE only $2

Monday night at the Ritz join us for this rare opportunity to see one of the touchstone films of the British Invasion. Mick Jagger plays himself, more or less, as a retired rock star who has sequestered himself in a London townhouse with two beautiful women (Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton) completely immersing himself in a years-long orgy of sex, drugs and mysticism that is interrupted by a gangster (James Fox) whose fists and tough talk are no match for the labyrinth of strangeness he encounters. In the strange house, under the influence of the psychedelic drugs and such oddly seductive company the gangster begins to find his inner rock star and the rock star finds his inner gangster, culminating in the obscene and vicious song, "Memo From Turner" in which Jagger declaims what is basically a proto-gangster rap into the camera. Lush, decadent, brilliant - this is a must see! Thanks to End Of An Ear Records and Dewar's Fine Scotch.

Tickets here. Also plays next Monday night. Don't miss.

SURF'S UP - Free Summer Party Thursday Night!

As you've probably heard, we like parties. And now that it's August, and the end of summer is in sight even as the heat of summer is beating down on us like never before, we realized that we were running out of time to throw a proper summertime beach party. But because of all of that heat outside, and the lack of any proper beach in Austin anyway, we're throwing our beach party inside, with our friends down the street from the Ritz, in the lounge over Emo's.

Join us this Thursday, August 7th at the Beast House (Above Emo's 4, 6th and Red River, enter on 6th) from 8-11:30pm for a 100% free tropical summer party featuring Ready, Steady, Go! (8:00), a DJ/go-go dancers hurricane of fun, and the Thunderchiefs (10:00) riding the surf rock waves with the best of them.

Nash Cook will be running a beach themed photo booth, and our own head chef John Bullington will be on hand with a free pineapple-infused buffet that will go perfectly with your viewings of PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and TROPIC THUNDER in the coming weeks.

You don't need tickets to get into this party. You don't need to RSVP. You just need to be 18 or over, and then show up at 604 East 6th Street entrance on Thursday night, and we'll see you there.

OKIE NOODLING 2 at the Ritz!

I'm a pansy about many, many things, but there is no pansy thing I do that's more embarrassing than my completely irrational fear of fish. I get creeped out at an aquarium, and when I tried to "conquer my fear" by going snorkeling, I was paralyzed in the water. So from where I'm sitting, there is no activity more balls out insane than noodling.

In case you didn't feel like clicking on that link to a definition of noodling, let me break it down for you here - "Noodling is the practice and sport of fishing for catfish using only one's bare hands."

That's right, there are people in the world who spend their free time in muddy river waters, dunking their heads under the water and then reaching into dark holes on the side of the river so they can wiggle their fingers like they were hot dogs, all in the hopes that a gigantic catfish will BITE THEM. Then they'll grab the catfish from INSIDE ITS OWN MOUTH and pull it out of the water.

So yeah, that sounds crazy to me. But seriously, look at the picture above - how is that not crazy?

And yet somehow Bradley Beesley, the director of two documentaries on Okie Noodling, makes you see that the people engaged in this activity aren't crazy at all. They've got a dangerous and marginalized hobby, sure, but remember when Dungeons and Dragons was going to make you a devil worshiper? Give the noodlers a chance!

For more info and tickets, click here.