THE GRAND opens this Friday at Lamar!

"Put Werner Herzog at the same table as Cheryl Hines, Woody Harrelson, Chris Parnell, David Cross, and Dennis Farina, and poker on film starts to look a lot less dull. Imagine what they could do with Monopoly." - Village Voice

"THE GRAND is in the grand tradition of Christopher Guest 'mockumentary' comedy satires: Its greatest asset is its eclectic, quirky-funny cast." - USA Today

"Even if you know nothing at all about the game, you'd be hard-pressed to find better entertainment for such a modest entry fee." - New York Daily News

Woody Harrelson, David Cross, and Cheryl Hines up the comedic ante in this mockumentary that centers on the high stakes world of poker. Harrelson plays a man intent on saving his grandfather's casino by winning the world's biggest poker tournament, but it will take an amazing amount of luck and skill to beat the best in the game. Everyone from Werner Herzog (as a creepy German who must "kill something every day") to Gabe Kaplan to Ray Romano enters the game for this comedy from Zak Penn.



Grab your tickets to the opening weekend of THE GRAND right here.

Highly acclaimed Austin documentary THE UNFORESEEN opens this week at S. Lamar

We'd be pretty excited over any doc about Barton Springs, especially one that takes a hard look at the shifty land-grabbers and crooks who threaten our Eden-like existence, but once the reviews and awards for THE UNFORESEEN started pouring in we realized that this movie is even more than that.

With a cast of characters that includes reviled developer Gary Bradley, former Governor Ann Richards and many others, this is the definitive story of the battle for Barton Springs - and a larger battle that concerns everyone, everywhere.

Expect to see it in contention for the Academy Award next year - that's how good it is.

It's already won the Independent Spirit Truer than Fiction Award and a slew of four star reviews:

"The kind of transformative viewing experience that has made the current period a golden age for nonfiction film." - VARIETY

"A beautiful, soulful work about real estate development and sprawl, focused on Austin's beloved Barton Springs, and if you think that's impossible you haven't seen it." - SALON

Click here for more info and to buy tickets to see THE UNFORESEEN at the Alamo South Lamar.

B-movie monolith JIM WYNORSKI at Weird Wednesday and Terror Thursday this week!

Here's a very special treat for all you late-night videomongers and sweaty exploitation enthusiasts:

Writer/director JIM WYNORSKI will be joining us LIVE for both of our weekly exploitation series this week at The Alamo Ritz, where we'll be presenting two of his timeless Video Age classics!

Read on...

Tonight, March 26th, Midnight, FREE!:
Weird Wednesday presents THE LOST EMPIRE

Ridiculous fun about a trio of huge-breasted tough chicks who team up to take down an evil shape shifting death vampire who runs a ladies-only martial arts tournament on his impregnable island fortress (one of many that cluttered the seas in the '70s and '80s). The bad guy, played by Angus Scrimm of the PHANTASM movies, is trying to attain two glowing mystical eyes that will give him power over life and death in the name of Satan. It's a pretty pressure packed situation for the heroines, a hardbodied police-woman, a wise-cracking busty blonde thief and a voluptuous Indian shamaness played by Russ Meyer favorite Raven De La Croix. Writer/director Jim Wynorski packs a LOT of fun into this one including a robotic spider, a laser gun shaped like a huge penis, a man ripping his own face off and a WOMAN KICKING A GORILLA IN THE NUTS. Really.

...Then, on Thursday, March 27th at midnight, FREE!:

Terror Thursday presents CHOPPING MALL

Writer/director Jim Wynorski followed up his blazing directorial debut (see THE LOST EMPIRE at Weird Wednesday) with this lean, mean and 100% chopping-free robotic assault on teenage lust! A shopping mall becomes both a breeding ground and a slaughterhouse when a gaggle of hornbag high-schoolers do some after-hours mattress shop spelunking and become targets of a highly advanced (and slighty malfunctioning) squadron of anti-burglary battledroids. The body count escalates as clothing is shed and human heads explode under major lazerfire! Watch for TERRORVISION's Mary Woronov and Gerrit Graham as well as a cameo from DEATH RACE 2000 director Paul Bartel. Featuring only the finest neon sleazery and a shocking disregard for the safety of its protagonists, CHOPING MALL is an iron-fisted lesson in '80s fashion, technology and bare-knuckle youthicide.

Food Fight!!! IRON CHEF AUSTIN: Round IV - Thursday at Lamar

Proceeds benefit the Capital Area Food Bank!

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 the Capital Area Food Bank.

The stage is now set for Iron Chef Alamo Round IV, in which the Alamo chefs John Bullington, Trish Eichelberger and Elijah Horgan will team up against a common foe, the award-winning kitchen of Roy's led by Chef Lawrence Kocurek. The proceedings will take place in the luxurious Alamo Kitchen Stadium (theater #3) wherein Alamo founder Tim League will be assuming the red kimono of Chairman Kaga.

It 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 5 dishes (that's 10 dishes in all folks!) themed to a film. 5 wine courses will also be provided. At the end of the show, the audience and an esteemed panel of Austin food critics will decide whose meals were tastier and more cleverly matched and timed to the movie.

The film chosen for this installment of IRON CHEF ALAMO is the Preston Sturges Comedy Classic THE LADY EVE. Henry Fonda plays a snake-obsessed beer magnate who emerges from an excursion up the Amazon only to find himself in the clutches of sexy con artist Barbara Stanwyck. He woos her on a luxury steamliner and later their paths cross at a high society banquet. It's one of the funniest, most romantic films ever made and we can't wait to see what our chefs do with it!

The show is seriously close to sold out, so grab your 10-course wine-paired Henry Fonda fill while you can! Click here.

AIR GUITAR Championships tonight at the Ritz!

Now with a $100 cash prize for the thrillingest shredder!!!

Compete in (or just sit back and revel in) the Austin Air Guitar Championships, Tuesday, March 25 at the Ritz, 9:45 PM. Contestants choose a track with hot licks, crank on the fog machine, grab their air-axes and ROCK OUT! Fabulous prizes, a trophy with an actual air guitar on the top and the green light with flocks of air-guitar groupies are yours if you win.

Details on the contest can be found here or check out the Austin Air Guitar Facebook Group.

The top three winners of each of the Austin Air Guitar preliminary rounds will be eligible to compete in the Austin Air Guitar finals (date TBA). The winner of the Austin finals will be flown to New York for the U.S. Finals. The winner of the U.S. Finals will be flown to Finland in June to represent America in the 2006 World Finals.

An amazing spectacle for both performers and spectators alike, Air Guitar has reigned supreme at the Alamo Drafthouse since 2005. We are looking for the next air guitar savant who will represent Austin on the world stage and finally make our town the "Air Music Capitol of the World."

It's free to compete, plus as an added bonus, each competitor will get 4 free tickets to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. If you want to compete, bring a CD of your 60 second performance track to the Alamo Drafthouse on the night of the show or you can email it in advance to brad@originalalamo.com.

Each competitor has 60 seconds to perform air guitar to a song they either choose before the competition or bring with them. Contestants are judged on the 4.0-6.0 figure skating scale. Costumes are highly recommended as is a little practicing in the mirror, although we have had many amazing walk-up competitors over the years.

Hip Hop classic WILD STYLE Friday and Saturday Midnight at Lamar!

There's a brand new print of the amazing, historical, epochal classic WILD STYLE and we've got it! Come watch it with us this weekend at the Alamo South Lamar.

To say WILD STYLE is an important film is a huge understatement. Before this film was released, most New Yorkers hadn’t even heard of hip hop music. Now it’s the most popular and important musical form in the world. This movie stars graffiti superstar Lee Quinones as a subway tagger who flirts with the downtown art scene. Along the way we are introduced to most of the real-life South Bronx and outer borough legends who created hip-hop style and culture. Featuring Grandmaster Flash (breaking it down on his kitchen table!), DJ Theodore, Busy Bee as well as legendary breakdancers Rocksteady Crew and the Cold Crush Crew.

So what we're saying is: THIS MOVIE IS CRUCIAL.

Buy your tickets here.

WILD STYLE with TOP-QUALITY LIVE BREAKDANCING at LAMAR!!

Join us for a special live breakdancing performance by B-Boy/B-Girl City stars Romeo Navarro, Dee Nice, and Jesse aka Recon before Thursday night’s show!!

To say WILD STYLE is an important film is a huge understatement. Before this film was released, most New Yorkers hadn’t even heard of hip hop music. Now it’s the most popular and important musical form in the world. This movie stars graffiti superstar Lee Quinones as a subway tagger who flirts with the downtown art scene. Along the way we are introduced to most of the real-life South Bronx and outer borough legends who created hip-hop style and culture. Featuring Grandmaster Flash (breaking it down on his kitchen table!), DJ Theodore, Busy Bee as well as legendary breakdancers Rocksteady Crew and the Cold Crush Crew.

So what we're saying is: THIS MOVIE IS CRUCIAL.

Click HERE to grab tickets!

ROCK BAND at the Ritz!

No, this is not a call out to find hot new "musical" talent. This is a call to Playstation 3 and XBox 360 owners. There's a new breed of Rock Band and we may just wipe actual musicians off the planet. Since Christmas, we've been nothing less than ADDICTED to Rock Band. But now we're tired of keeping the party in our living room and the basement at our parents' house, and we want to bring it out into public and see what you can do. So in the spirit of rock that started with AIR GUITAR, we invite you to form a band, come up with some costumes, and come down to the Alamo Ritz theater this Wednesday night to show us how you rock.



It's free to compete, and we'll also be posting updates, videos and photos to this Facebook group, so please join if you are a Rock Band enthusiast.

Send an email to brad@originalalamo.com to register your band to compete, or click here to purchase tickets as a spectator.

The Rock Band Championships are sponsored in part by Coleandbobby.com. Not only are they obsessed with film, they are, like us, addicted to Rock Band.

BUD CORT is coming to the Ritz!

If you don't get your fill of celebrity sighting during South By this week, don't worry. After years of trying, we've finally arranged to have Bud Cort, the star of BREWSTER McCLOUD and HAROLD & MAUDE, come out to the Alamo Ritz for a special double-feature of his two breakout roles.

At 7pm, join Bud for a screening of BREWSTER McCLOUD, Robert Altman's madcap surrealist adventure that was filmed right here in Texas and focuses on the story of a young man (Cort) obsessed with building a functional set of wings so he can fly around inside the Astrodome (R.I.P.). The story takes off from there, of course, and Brewster soon caught up in a whirlwind of crackpots, romance and a mysterious killer.

Then at 9:45, HAROLD & MAUDE. No character defines art house cinema like the faux-suicidal Harold in this classic romance between an unlikely pair of eccentrics, and Mr. Cort's deadpan humor in no small way helped created one of the most unique cult hits of our time. Whether this will be your first viewing or your hundredth, we can't think of a single better way to enjoy this masterpiece than by starting out with a salute to Bud Cort live.

Tickets for BREWSTER McCLOUD are available here.

Tickets for HAROLD & MAUDE are right here.

And here's the video trailer for the event, in case you need more Bud Cort *right now*:

Master Pancake Theater goes BACK TO THE VILLAGE...uh, I mean FUTURE!!!

Continuing the triumphant return of local renaissance funnyman Owen Egerton to the movie-mocking circuit, we're pleased to add additional screenings of this sold-out show at the Alamo Village!

For this installment of the much-ballyhooed Master Pancake Experience, the Austin public will be at Comedy Ground Zero for the reunion of two original cast members from the Sinus Show: John Erler (the tall bald one) and Owen Egerton (the compact ginger nut), who, along with pal Joe Parsons, lampoon BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985), a film so iconic that for a brief period in the mid-80's it convinced people that DeLoreans, Burger King and Huey Lewis and the News were hip. Michael J. Fox (FAMILY TIES, TEEN WOLF) plays, well, Michael J. Fox -- or Marty McFly as he's called here -- who travels back in time in order to save his professorial pal 'Doc', played by Christopher Lloyd (CLUE, STAR TREK III). Along the way, McFox ends up inventing Rock 'n Roll, changing the future and almost dating his own mom. Oedipally complex, this movie features a brilliant performance from indie icon Crispin Glover as Marty's exquisitely milquetoast dad, who eventually learns how to sock it to Biff. Time McFlys when you're having fun, and you'll be having 1.21 jigowatts of it this February, with film-embellishers John, Owen and Joe, March 7 and 15 at the Alamo Village! Get yer tickets HERE!

Watch cool videos, win amazing tickets!

Check out the films from the 2008 Beats Per Minute Filmmaking Competition! We are in the process of uploading the films to the Filmmaking Frenzy website. But you can see them all, loud and proud at the Alamo Ritz on Monday and Tuesday (same program both nights).

BPM is a 48 Hour filmmaking competition that we have hosted at the Alamo for the past 3 years. This year, we have teamed up with Red Bull for the event. They are throwing a big party during SXSW with some of the best bands around, local and national. Teams were given 48 hours to conceive, shoot and edit a music video for one of the artists playing at the Red Bull Moon Tower party. The videos will be screened in-between sets at the Red Bull Moon Tower and we'll be announcing the winners at 9:30 PM on the opening Wednesday of the party.

Grand prize for this Frenzy is an AMD-based Dell laptop loaded up by Guitar Center with a music editing package, second prize is an AMD-based Dell laptop and third prize is an Epiphone guitar provided by Gibson.

The 12 finalists will be determined from the online and in-theater voting. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd place videos will be chosen by Wiley Wiggins, star of Dazed and Confused, the inspiration behind the Red Bull Moon Tower party.

If you don't want to watch the videos online, you can cast your vote for all of the films at the Alamo Ritz on Monday and Tuesday.

We'll also be giving away a pair of 4-day tickets to the Red Bull Moon Tower at each of the screenings. This party is not open to the public and if you know anything about Red Bull, this is going to be THE party to get into this year.

Tickets and Info

Sexy? We Brought It Back.

Tonight is the very first night in our run of Justin Timberlake Sing-Alongs. If you missed the J.T. birthday party, this is the night for you. If you came to the J.T. birthday party, congratulations, you get to relive the single greatest night of your life.




Grab your tickets to the show at the Ritz here, and wear a vest.