SICK & TWISTED

Spike & Mike's SICK & TWISTED FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION!
Only at the Alamo Ritz
Get your tickets here

NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN, WOMEN WHO ARE PREGNANT OR MAY BECOME PREGNANT, PEOPLE WITH HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HIGH MORAL CHARACTER, DECENCY OR GOOD TASTE.

Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation has been an annual tradition at the Alamo Downtown for almost the entire existence of the theater. Every year we like to think that we've been so desensitized by the previous shows that nothing could shock us, and every year we're proven wrong.

The 2009 edition is filled with so much that is so wrong that you'll be bleeding out of your eyes by the end of the show, and you'll be laughing so hard that your intestines will likely pop up out of your mouth and fly into the air, lassoing an unsuspecting audience member four rows down who will mistake your guts for a prop that's supposed to be used in the show and will start gleefully playing with them. And you'll still be laughing so hard that you won't even mind. Seriously, that's how good this year's show is. There will be fresh appearances from old favorites, a whole new crop of characters ready to make you vomit through your nose!

FAT TUESDAY at the Ritz!

HEY HOMO! presents
TOP GUN
7pm at the Ritz, advance tickets available here

THE MARDI GRAS SEXY POP MASQUERADE SING-ALONG
10:15pm at the Ritz, advance tickets available here

Okay, admittedly the crowds on Sixth Street are going to be CRAZY tonight. But that's part of what I love about ducking into the Ritz on nights like this anyway. The street goes insane, but I only deal with it for a block or two - just enough to get amped up by the energy - then get to duck into the theater before I step in anything sticky. It's perfect!

It's also always nice realizing that there are scores of people wandering the street, desperately looking for a party, and while most of them will just shuffle back and forth over and over again, we'll actually be inside at the best party on the street, and they won't even be able to find us.

So we have two great party shows tonight, with a 7pm screening of the Hey Homo! presentation of TOP GUN, an iconic film about two men who love sitting between each other's legs in the cockpit while they do fly-bys past the tower. Remarkably ahead of its time for a mainstream movie, TOP GUN was one of the first Hollywood blockbusters to show how deeply two men could feel for each other, and we're going to celebrate that tonight with a good dose of fabulousness from Ms. Rebecca Havemeyer before the show.

After that, it's time for the Mardi Gras Sexy Pop Masquerade Sing-Along Party. It's our longest Sing-Along title of the year, and it's also one of the most fun shows. Last year's show was a mix tape of pop stars that get to act sexy in their videos, but we've taken the "sexy" aspect of the show name even further this year by creating a show that's chock full of - are you ready for it? -

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, Sex Me, I Wanna Sex You Up, I'm Too Sexy, I Wanna Love You, and on and on, but I'm sure you get the idea. Of course, I'm incapable of throwing a Sing-Along party without putting in pop stars that are just sexy, so look for a whole new blend of current pop hits along with the Sexy.

We'll be throwing beads out all night long as well, and because it's Mardi Gras, serving up lots and lots of hurricanes. Come on out tonight and build up the courage to help you feel shameless this Thursday.

WENDY & LUCY at the Ritz!

WENDY AND LUCY
Now playing at the Alamo Ritz
Click here for advance tickets

"Beautiful and haunting." - David Denby, The New Yorker

"Thanks to an extraordinary performance from Michelle Williams and an exceptionally deft hand from her director, this low-budget and loping little film is a genuine heartbreaker." - Stephen Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Michelle Williams gives as lovely a performance as a moviegoer could ask for." - Joe Morganstern, Wall Street Journal

"The strength of this short, simple, perfect story of a young woman and her dog is that this does not seem, by the end, to be an idle or trivial question. What happens to Wendy — and to Lucy — matters a lot, which is to say that WENDY AND LUCY, for all its modesty, matters a lot too." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

Wendy Carroll (Michelle Williams) is driving to Ketchikan, Alaska, in hopes of a summer of lucrative work at the Northwestern Fish cannery, and the start of a new life with her dog, Lucy. When her car breaks down in Oregon, however, the thin fabric of her financial situation comes apart, and she confronts a series of increasingly dire economic decisions, with far-ranging repercussions for herself and Lucy.

WENDY AND LUCY addresses issues of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life, revealing the limits and depths of peopleʼs duty to each other in tough times.

Oscar Weekend: A Few Seats Left For our Red Carpet Bashes

Red Carpet Bash
Sunday at Alamo Village
Click here to reserve your seat.

Red Carpet Feast
Sunday at Alamo South Lamar
Click here to reserve your seat.

Every year we watch the Academy Awards with several hundred of our closest friends at our Red Carpet Bashes and then the next day we hear from seemingly several hundred of our other friends that they didn't reserve seats fast enough and missed the show.

So, no excuse this year - there are seats available as of now for the Village show as well as a (very) few tickets available for our exclusive Red Carpet Feast at Lamar. So act now and be there for all the contests, prizes, embarrassing clips of celebrities in early forgotten roles, sing-a-longs and more.

Neither Academy Awards host Hugh Jackman (Hugh Jackman?) or the entire entertainment monolith of Hollywood can compete with all the glitz and ballyhoo we inject into the Oscar proceedings.

Monday Night: CASABLANCA Cinema Cocktails

Cinema Cocktails: CASABLANCA at the Ritz
Monday, February 16, 7:45p
Buy Tickets Here

They call it "the perfect movie" for a reason. CASABLANCA is such an intensely rewarding cocktail of romance, tragedy and adventure that it never fails to put the most cynical movie lover under the table. The casting is perfect. Humphrey Bogart as nightclub owner Rick tries desperately (like the U.S. itself) not to get entangled, but resistance fighter Ingrid Bergman is pretty irresistible, particularly when she gets that shine in her eyes. There is also a lively supporting cast of Nazis, hustlers, crooked cops and innocent doomed refugees. Most of the action takes place in Ricks Cafe Americain where Bogart keeps a lazy but perceptive eye on the action. You know all the lines already, you've probably even seen the film before but the timeless appeal of CASABLANCA on the big screen is like a great whiskey.

This Weekend at the Alamo

Ahhh, Valentine's Day- that one special day when material things are bagged and tagged as tangible evidence in the court of love. Oh, sure, some folks out there are above it and will say things like 'gah, Valentine's is like such a corporate holiday' and 'our love is not for sale, consumer whore', but those people will undoubtedly get convicted and spend the next month in solitary confinement. It's better to just play ball, to suck it up and show that special someone in your life they're worth the moon...or at least bribe the judge.

No matter what you do or who you love, there's something for you at the Alamo this weekend. If you happen to be in to the whole Valentine's Day thing, you'll score HUGE points with the extravagant ANNIE HALL Valentine's Day Feast. Or if you're particularly against the whole Valentine's Day thing, you might try The Love Bites Power Ballad Sing-Along at the Ritz. And if you're only into certain fringe benefits of Valentine's Day, then you might consider competing in The Austin Air Sex Preliminary Round 1.

Or, if you didn't even realize Valentine's Day was this Saturday or you're in Austin just for the weekend from out of galaxy, we've got shows of SUPER HAPPY FUN MONKEY BASH 7 Saturday and Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation on Sunday to thoroughly desensitize you to the finer points of the human condition.

Also on Sunday, renowned artist and turntablist D.J. Spooky will be live in the theater to introduce his film REBIRTH OF A NATION. So, whatever your pleasure, highbrow to low, get some at the Alamo.

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

LOVE BITES: The Power Ballad Sing-Along

LOVE BITES: THE POWER BALLAD SING-ALONG
Sun, Weds, Thurs & Sat at the Ritz
Advance Tickets available right here

Every year around this time, we're reminded of one simple truth: Love Bites. And we're reminded of it over and over and over again by every rocker that ever graced a pyrotechnic-enhanced stage in the 1980s. Because explosions and hard rock and metal are all awesome, but you can't sell a multi-platinum album until you slow it down one time for the ladies and show us all your sensitive side.

And so Whitesnake wants to know, Is this love? And Slash has to perform his guitar solo outside of a church in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, after the hardcore bands showed how profitable power ballads could be, a whole legion of ripped jean long-hairs took to the stage for nothing but ballads over and over again. And no matter how hard core you thought you were, there came a time, somewhere in your junior high career, when a song by REO Speedwagon or Journey or even Richard Marx would make you cry. And at least one of those songs probably still does.

And if you're like me, Peter Cetera still gives you the shivers, because you realize that the Glory of Love may just be the greatest song of all time.

We're bringing back LOVE BITES: THE POWER BALLAD SING-ALONG with a brand new 2009 edition this week, and while we've kept in all of our favorites from previous years, we've also packed in new songs that should have been in there all along. The end result is a show so rocking, so powerful, and so heartfelt that you'll probably need to pack an extra lighter or two to handle all the times you're going to want to hold one up in the air and sway along.

FANBOYS At The Ritz

FANBOYS
Starting Thursday Midnight
All Week At The Ritz!
Buy Tickets Here!

In this riotous new road movie starring TROPIC THUNDER's Jay Baruchel and FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL's Kristen Bell, a group of avid Star Wars fans travel west to see the Holy Grail of all sci-fi movies, STAR WARS EPISODE 1. The year is 1999 and for these deathstar dorks, the Star Wars films are more than just movies; they're a way of life. So, after one of the group takes sick it is nothing short of a moral imperative that the friends break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch to watch the seminal sci-fi picture together before its release. Enlisting the help of an estranged friend who has traded in his Darth Vader mask for a proper day job, the adventure lays way to countless insane situations, including an outrageous brawl with some hard-core Trekkies. Look out for an unbelievable list of guest actors, including Seth Rogen, William Shatner, Carrie Fisher, funnyman Danny McBride, Billy Dee Williams, Kevin Smith and many, many, many more!

Cinema Cocktails: Mickey Rourke in BARFLY

Cinema Cocktails BARFLY
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the Ritz

Showtimes and Tickets here!

We've labored for years to bring you this modern classic of gin-soaked alienation and indomitable spirit among the denizens of skid row on 35mm. And now it's here.

There's been a lot of verbiage written in the wake of Darren Aronofsky's THE WRESTLER about Mickey Rourke and how he's actually a really good actor. Anybody who's seen this 1987 Barbet Schroeder adaptation of Charles Bukowski's script knew that already. Rourke has a field day with the character Henry Chinaski, modeled on Bukowski's hell-raising life as a not-very-good barroom brawler who has almost nothing left but an iron liver and his personal integrity. In its own way, the film makes this kind of bottom-of-the barrel life look romantic and glamorous. Chinaski listens to classical music all day, writes poems, makes out with beautiful but ruined Faye Dunaway and then retires to the bar to tell stories, drink and fight. If you don't understand the appeal maybe you shouldn't try. But if you get it, you're exactly the kind of person we want to see walk through the door. We can't wait to line up a shot or three and enjoy this one on the big screen again after too many years.


With a $10 "One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer" Special. Please enjoy responsibly!