Thursday, September 30, 2010

Jeffrey Combs LIVE! in One Man Poe Show!




Jeffrey Combs in Stuart Gordon's
NEVERMORE
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 7:00 @South Lamar

Advance tickets available here

NEVERMORE is intense. It is a one man stage show about a man you would kill to spend an evening with, the esteemed poet and author Edgar Allan Poe. Starring the inimitable Jeffrey Combs and directed by one of his frequent collaborators Stuart Gordon (together they made the '80s horror classics RE-ANIMATOR and FROM BEYOND), this show is striking, beautiful, and surprisingly informative on the life of America's most important macabre master.

Here’s Stuart Gordon’s own description of the live theatrical work that has already generated praise and long lines. "NEVERMORE is our attempt to recreate the public recitals that Edgar Allan Poe presented during the last few years of his much-too-short life. Set in 1848, a year after the death of his beloved wife Virginia (and a year before his own), Poe had become internationally famous as the author of “The Raven” and his “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.” But his fame did not provide fortune and so he was constantly seeking financial security and respect from the literary establishment. As a Southerner by breeding, raised in Virginia, he was looked down upon by the New England based writers of the time, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving and Edgar’s arch-nemesis Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

This is Poe in his own words. Our text is taken from his letters and essays and we have based our evening on reviews and reports of his actual appearances. Our goal is to present a sense of the fascinating man behind the poetry and brilliant tales, a man who could be his own worst enemy, and whose life was even more bizarre and tragic than his strangest story."

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

MIGHTY BOOSH dox at the Ritz this Week





The Mighty Boosh in
JOURNEY OF THE CHILDMEN
Sunday 9/26, 9:30, Wednesday 9/29, 9:50 @Ritz

Advance tickets available here

The Boosh have been a sensation in their native jolly old England for years. Thanks to lower tariffs on absurdly hilarious British comedies allowing for reruns on Adult Swim, the Boosh cult has been growing on this side of the pond as well.

JOURNEY OF THE CHILDMEN is director Oliver Ralfe's up close and personal tour doc, filmed during the Boosh's mammoth Future Sailors tour where the boys performed a staggering 91 performances to sell out crowds across the UK.

Mixing segments from the electric live performances with candid footage of the chaos and creativity behind the scenes, it's enough put Boosh fans the world over off their tiny faces.

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Fantastic Fest Gala Screenings on Sale Now!





Fantastic Fest Gala Premieres
LET ME IN, BURIED, STONE, Roger Corman & Yuen Woo Ping
Thursday 9/23-Saturday 9/25 at the Paramount Theatre

Advance tickets available here

As many of you know, Fantastic Fest is fast approaching, kicking off on Thursday with a double feature at the historic Paramount Theatre. We start at 6pm with LET ME IN, the American re-imagining of the fantastic Swedish film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. This is the US Premiere of the film, and director Matt Reeves (CLOVERFIELD) and the cast will be with us. Following that at 9pm, we're hosting a Ryan Reynolds and Director Rodrigo Cortés for a premiere of BURIED. This highly anticipated thriller which wowed audiences at Sundance has Ryan Reynolds trapped in a coffin for an entire movie. Cue the nightmares.

On Friday, we start with the US Premiere of STONE at 6pm. This film stars Ed Norton, Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich. Norton and director John Curran will be here to present the film. Following that, we'll be giving a lifetime achievement award to exploitation and genre film pioneer Roger Corman. The festivities start at 9, and include the US Premiere of the new documentary about Filipino Exploitation films MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED and the World Premiere of Corman's new film, SHARKTOPUS.

Finally, on Saturday at 6pm we're giving our second lifetime achievement award to legendary fight choreographer and director Yuen Woo Ping. As part of the events, we'll be showing the World Premiere of Yuen's new film, TRUE LEGEND, and also showcasing one of his most famous features, the Jackie Chan masterpiece SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW.

Fantastic Fest Admissions Policy: As with all screenings at Fantastic Fest, VIP Badgeholders are guaranteed admission to the Paramount gala shows. By moving from the South Lamar theater to the Paramount, we have expanded the capacity of the gala shows so we can also accommodate a large number of regular badges as well. Regular badge holders are not guaranteed admission to the gala events, but far more will be able to get in than in years past.

Get your tickets for these great shows now.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Cinema Club presents ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS





Cinema Club Presents
ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS
Sunday 9/19, 6:30 @Ritz

Advance tickets available here

Alamo's Cinema Club, the series that brings film historians to the Alamo for a night of classic film discussion, is proud to bring Dr. Charles Ramirez Berg back, to present the Howard Hawks picture ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. A stark and tough drama starring wise-guy Cary Grant, daffodil Jean Arthur, and the smoky Rita Hayworth, this film is not to be missed by anyone.

There has never been another American filmmaker whose peculiar style of work has harmonized so well with the popular tastes of so many divergent types of people as Howard Hawks. If the mention of his name calls to mind the tortuous arguments of auteurists and other intellectual contortionists we must also remember that his films were big hits with the public at large. Hawks' films are about people. They are dioramas where fascinating personalities roam freely, doing their jobs with spectacular competence and honor as they live by a code - the Hawksian code if you will - bred in the bone, a secret democratic chivalry, a communality of the self reliant.

Come Sunday to learn more about Hawks and to see one of the greatest films of Hollywood History!

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

YARRRR! THE 3rd ANNUAL PIRATE PARTY



The Action Pack presents
THE THIRD ANNUAL PIRATE PARTY
Dress as a Pirate! Dance Party on a Boat on Lady Bird Lake!
$60 ticket price includes your piratey adult beverages!
Advance tickets available right here


In year one we took over Lake Travis with a treasure hunt on an island, an attack from a firework-shooting speedboat, a parrot pinata filled with drink tickets, and a DJ dance party that got everyone moving so fast that a few pirates lost their lunch off the side of the top of the boat (sorry, people on the bottom of the boat!).

Last year’s pirate party moved the action to Lady Bird Lake and featured sea shanty terrorizing of the bat watchers on Congress Avenue, hanging treasure chests filled with more drink tickets, a mutiny that forced me to jump off the boat at sword point, a kayaker who tied on to our boat and stole alcohol from our pirate bartenders, and ultimately a reverler who left the drum circle he’d been part of on the pedestrian bridge and jumped down onto our boat. The night did NOT end well for the pedestrian bridge jumper, but after the paramedics made sure he was okay the rest of us went on to Treasure Island and got into more trouble.

This year we’re taking over Lady Bird Lake again, but we’re NOT GOING TO LET PEOPLE JUMP FROM THE BRIDGE. If we see anyone tempted, we’re going to suddenly all punch up at the same time and knock them off into the water. What else will happen? We can’t tell you that. All we can say is that this is the best fucking dance party of the fall. We’ll be taking over a boat on Lady Bird Lake, and if you want on not only will you have to buy tickets, but you’ll have to show up dressed like a pirate. Any non-pirates who show up will be DENIED ENTRY TO OUR BOAT NO MATTER WHAT.

Featuring more sea shanties from me, Captain Mazza, and the dance party mastery of the Dread DJ Roberts. And definitely not to be missed. (Henri Mazza)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Date Night: SIDEWAYS



Date Night: SIDEWAYS
Thursday Sept 16 at Lake Creek
Advance tickets available HERE


Don't have the budget to jet off to the Sonoma Valley every time you have a hankering for some wine-drinking and revelry? We've got you covered with a special Date Night screening of SIDEWAYS. While it could be argued that this is not the most romantic movie ever - due mostly to the less-than-monogamous ways of lead character Jack, SIDEWAYS still stands as an incredible movie to see with your sweetheart. Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (Alexander Payne), SIDEWAYS certainly stands the test of time. And like a fine Pinot Noir, this movie only seems to get better as it ages.

Long time friends and polar opposites Jack (Thomas Haden Church) and Miles (Paul Giamatti) decide to take a trip to the wine country before Jack gets hitched. While Miles is looking forward to a week of wine tasting and a little golf, Jack has other ideas of how to spend his last week as a bachelor. When the duo cross paths with two intriguing women (i.e. they have lady parts), their low-key guys' trip turns into something else altogether.

For this one-night-only screening, we will be including a multi-course mini-feast with the film. In addition, each course will also be paired with an elegant pinot noir ("I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!"). So, make like its the The Day After Yesterday and take a look at the menu HERE...and spit that gum out for God's sake.

YARRRR! The 3rd Annual PIRATE PARTY



The Action Pack presents
THE THIRD ANNUAL PIRATE PARTY
Dress as a Pirate! Dance Party on a Boat on Lady Bird Lake!
$60 ticket price includes your piratey adult beverages!
Advance tickets available right here


In year one we took over Lake Travis with a treasure hunt on an island, an attack from a firework-shooting speedboat, a parrot pinata filled with drink tickets, and a DJ dance party that got everyone moving so fast that a few pirates lost their lunch off the side of the top of the boat (sorry, people on the bottom of the boat!).

Last year’s pirate party moved the action to Lady Bird Lake and featured sea shanty terrorizing of the bat watchers on Congress Avenue, hanging treasure chests filled with more drink tickets, a mutiny that forced me to jump off the boat at sword point, a kayaker who tied on to our boat and stole alcohol from our pirate bartenders, and ultimately a reverler who left the drum circle he’d been part of on the pedestrian bridge and jumped down onto our boat. The night did NOT end well for the pedestrian bridge jumper, but after the paramedics made sure he was okay the rest of us went on to Treasure Island and got into more trouble.

This year we’re taking over Lady Bird Lake again, but we’re NOT GOING TO LET PEOPLE JUMP FROM THE BRIDGE. If we see anyone tempted, we’re going to suddenly all punch up at the same time and knock them off into the water. What else will happen? We can’t tell you that. All we can say is that this is the best fucking dance party of the fall. We’ll be taking over a boat on Lady Bird Lake, and if you want on not only will you have to buy tickets, but you’ll have to show up dressed like a pirate. Any non-pirates who show up will be DENIED ENTRY TO OUR BOAT NO MATTER WHAT.

Featuring more sea shanties from me, Captain Mazza, and the dance party mastery of the Dread DJ Roberts. And definitely not to be missed. (Henri Mazza)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

St. Arnold Tasting and mini-feast hosted by Brock Wagner



St. Arnold Tasting with Brock Wagner - Tues, 9/14 @Lake Creek

Advance tickets available here

Foodies and beer drinkers unite! This Tuesday (9/14), we are pleased to be hosting a beer dinner at Lake Creek with Houston’s oldest and finest craft brewery, St. Arnold. Owner and founder Brock Wagner will be in attendance to host the event and run through some of the brewery’s finest offerings, paired with a multi-course mini-feast to complement the brews. My mouth is watering just thinking of the “Taco Party” course. Check out the menu below as well as a writeup of what’s in-store via resident Alamo Beer Guru Jim Hughes.

The Menu will include

1st Course – Seafood
St. Arnolds Lawnmower : New England Clam Chowder.
St. Arnolds Texas Wheat: Kristalweizen Mussels with coriander and shallots

2nd Course – Taco Party
St. Arnolds Amber: Amber marinated flat iron steak with roasted poblano peppers and cotija cheese
St. Arnolds Elissa IPA: Achiote and Orange marinated chicken w/ Habenero cream sauce..
St. Arnolds Oktoberfest: Braised pork w/ mango and red cabbage

3rd Course – Dessert
St. Arnolds Brown Ale: Pear Fritters and Marzipan ice cream with almonds and St. Arnolds Brown ale Wort Reduction.

“To kick off the evening, a double-barrelled seafood course paired with two of the St Arnold Brewing Company’s crisp summer beers. First up is New England Clam Chowder with Fancy Lawnmower. Lawnmower is a Kölschbier, a beer style originally brewed in Cologne. Its moderate hop character won’t overpower the chowder but is able to cleanse the palate in readiness for the second half of the course – mussels cooked in wheat beer and coriander. St Arnold Texas Wheat is a filtered wheat beer, making it a kristalweizen. Wheat beers, whether filtered or unfiltered, hefeweizen or witbier, are generally the summer beer of choice here in Texas.

Moving along to the main part of the dinner – three courses of meat served with progressively bigger beers. Firstly, flat iron steak marinated in St Arnold Amber, and paired with… what else? St Arnold Amber is a rich, malty beer, not too sweet and with a soft, citrusy hop character. It’s St Arnold’s flagship beer, and rightly so. Achoite and orange-marinated chicken is next, paired with St Arnold Elissa India Pale Ale – a big, hoppy IPA with a strong backbone of British Maris Otter malt to balance the hop bitterness. Elissa is unusual these days in that it’s a single-hop beer, being flavoured, bittered and dry-hopped with what is often thought of as the quintessential American hop variety – Cascade, lending strong spicy and floral notes to the brew and complementing the habanero cream sauce. And thirdly, well it would be just plain wrong not to include the best-known fall seasonal in the mix at this time of the year. St Arnold Oktoberfest is a fine example of this powerful, full-bodied and richly flavoured German beer style, traditionally brewed in the spring and stored throughout the summer for drinking in the autumn. Slightly sweet, not too hoppy, relatively high in alcohol content and with the distinctive caramel notes found in Munich malt, it goes perfectly with braised pork, especially pork which has been braised in St Arnold Oktoberfest!

At last, it’s time for dessert. Brown ales are often overlooked in favour of pales and ambers, IPAs, stouts etc, but this is not a beer style to leave by the wayside, and its characteristic dulcitude (look it up) goes well with dessert. You’ll often find malt-related hints of toffee and caramel here, maybe even a touch of chocolate, and a flavour often associated with brown ale – nuttiness. The pear fritters will be served with a reduction of St Arnold Brown Ale wort – the first part of the brewing process, a sweet liquid brimming with malt sugars and flavours. A perfect end to an evening of good beer and good food.” -Jim Hughes, Head Beer Nerd, Alamo Drafthouse, South Lamar

Saturday, September 11, 2010

BAD VIDEOGAME MOVIES



CollegeHumor presents
BAD VIDEOGAME MOVIES: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY
with BLEEP BLOOP co-hosts Patrick Cassels and Jeff Rubin live
Sunday, Sept 12 at the Alamo Ritz
Advance tix available here


Video games are fun and movies are great, so surely movies based on video games must be amazing... right? Yet time and again films based on computer games have proved to be at their best bizarrely tolerable, and at their worst unbearably awful. Like two harmless chemicals mixing to create a toxin that targets and kills coherent plots and good acting, perfectly playable games, like Double Dragon, translate to unwatchable movies, like Double Dragon.

Join Patrick Cassels and Jeff Rubin, writers at CollegeHumor and co-hosts of the online video game talk show BLEEP BLOOP, for a way-too-in-depth look at the relationship between games and movies. Watching scenes from Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Hitman and many, many more examples from the nearly 20-year history of cringe-inducing game adaptations, Pat, Jeff and the audience will venture deep into the dark heart of the genre and uncover just what makes it so damn hard to make a decent video game movie.

Other films to be featured and discussed: Tomb Raider, Double Dragon, Doom, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Max Payne and virtually everything Uwe Boll has ever touched.

Check out the Onion AV Club interview with Jeff & Patrick!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Joaquin Phoenix doc I'M STILL HERE opens Lamar Friday




I'M STILL HERE - Opens Friday 9/10 @South Lamar
Advance tickets available here

It's a strange year when the best and most mind-fuzzing films are documentaries. Sometimes, though, fact is stranger than fiction - and this is one of those years. You may recall the buzz-worthy EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, where street artist Banksy turned a documentarian's camera around and found art and artifice in strange, familiar places. Likewise, you're surely as excited about CATFISH as Alamo founder Tim League is.

Before we can all solve the mystery of CATFISH, though, there's another fabulous doc coming to the Alamo South Lamar. I'm STILL HERE: THE LOST YEARS OF JOAQUIN PHOENIX tells the story of infamous whack-job/famous actor/rapper? Phoenix and just what the hell happened to him lately. You probably remember his great appearance on David Letterman last year, right?



Well, this is a whole movie about that. If you haven't seen the trailer, please do yourself a favor. He hugs Puff Daddy! You have to see this. And did we mention it's directed by Ben Affleck's brother Casey?

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

SXSW Presents DOGTOOTH at the Ritz




SXSW Presents: DOGTOOTH - Tuesday 9/7 and Wednesday 9/8 at 7pm, and Sunday 9/12 @10:15pm - @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

The Cannes Film Festival, arguably the world's fanciest film festival, awards the Prize Un Certain Regard every year to a film they find innovative, daring, and different, promising a bright future for a new filmmaker with fresh vision. Last year, that prize went to a Greek satire titled KYONDONTAS, or in English - DOGTOOTH.

DOGTOOTH is a dreamy film, brilliantly directed and acted, and unfolding a story so bizarre and creepy that it'll scare you. The parents of a pack of young people intentionally shelter their offspring from the outside world, forbidding them from leaving their home with lies and the threat of danger. So deep is their shielded life that even vocabulary is changed to continue the illusion of isolation (“Zombie” is a yellow flower, “Pussy” a big light, “Telephone” a salt shaker). This project of ignorance seems like a deranged social experiment, but plays as a profound indictment against civilization and its need to condemn itself.

Director Yorgos Lanthimos is a new filmmaker, but he is already a master. Roger Ebert expresses his take on the style brilliantly: "Lanthimos tells his story with complete command of visuals and performances. His cinematography is like a series of family photographs of a family with something wrong with it. His dialogue sounds composed entirely of sentences memorized from tourist phrase books."

Get your tickets for this great show now.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

MACHETE explodes on screen at Ritz & Village this weekend!



MACHETE Opens 9/3
Advance Tickets on sale now! Click here for Ritz and here for Village.

Get ready, hombres, for an explosive weekend as MACHETE finally hacks its way across our screens at the Village and the Ritz.

This is the one we've been waiting three long years for, folks -- ever since we saw GRINDHOUSE and said, "man, that's such an awesome trailer, they should make that a movie for reals!"

MACHETE stars the most badass human being on the planet, Danny Trejo, a hitman who's choice weapon is, yup... A MACHETE!! When a set-up on a fake job leads to his near murder, he sets out on a no-holds-barred revenge spree that guarantees excessive violence, gore, and nudity. In other words, all the stuff great movies are made of!

P.S. Tickets for the blow-out premiere at the Paramount on Thursday are sold out. BUT, word is there might still be tickets available for the blow-out after-party! Go here for tickets and details!

Stop Motion Mania TONIGHT at the Ritz!


7:00pm tonight at the Ritz!

FILMMAKERS LIVE IN PERSON!

The Alamo is proud to bring back the first feature-length no-rules stop-motion action comedy to star only action figures: Paul Hanley and Kieran Healy's VIVA THE 'NAM. VIVA depicts the bizarre adventures of Pvt. Joe Holmes, a marine stationed in Vietnam's "I Corps" from 1968-1969. The last of a family line that has lost a man in every single American conflict, Holmes will have to overcome communist armies, Russian Roulette rounds, USO riots, bloodthirsty drill instructors, leeches, drunk drivers, an M16-wielding Charlton Heston, and poop-smoking Frenchmen to make it out of Vietnam alive! Impossibly intricate, the film was made over the course of eight years (!!), a sprawling epic the likes of which GI Joe stop-motion animation has never seen before (and will probably never see again...unless someone wants to give the filmmakers a lot of money). Don't miss this opportunity to witness cinematic history while you bust a few guts.

Get your tickets here!!