Foleyvision and Intergalactic Nemesis Thursday at Ritz

Foleyvision: FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS w/ Intergalactic Nemesis - Thursday 7/1 at 7:00pm @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

This Thursday, a sound effect event will be happening at the Ritz that will blow your ears off. FOLEYVISION, those aurally creative people who brought us new soundtracks for such hits as TURKISH STAR WARS, SANTA VS. SATAN, FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY, and TURKISH WIZARD OF OZ will be bringing an awesome new show: FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS.

When Ming the Merciless projects a deadly ray from Mars to extract all of the nitrogen from Earth's atmosphere, it's up to Flash and his pals to use awesome special effects to save the world from destruction!

In case you've never been to a Foleyvision show, here's how it works. Foleyvision is a group of performers who take old and odd pictures, strip them of their soundtrack, and recreate them live. That means all of the music, the dialogue, and the incidental noises are created in the theatre in a live environment. It's fun, it's wild, and it's one of our favorite Alamo-original programming.

And that's not all. Foleyvision Foley artist Buzz Moran is bringing his talents once again for the Intergalactic Nemesis comic book/radio drama show. Before the feature, enjoy a live, 10-minute performance of the live-action animated play. For those not keeping track, Intergalactic Nemesis is on episode five of their sci-fi adventure, and Molly Sloan, Timmy Mendez, Mysterion the Magnificent, and mystery-man named Ben Wilcott are in the middle of a thrill ride.

Wider than Cinemascope, deeper than 3D, more sonically astounding than THX, it's FOLEYVISION! Every line of dialogue, every note of music, every single sound effect if performed right before your eyes by the amazing Foleyvision cast.

Get your tickets for this great show now.

FINAL FLESH with creator VERNON CHATMAN live

FINAL FLESH w/ Vernon Chatman live - Wednesday 6/30 at 9:30pm @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

We're doing a special screening of the film FINAL FLESH. The writer, Vernon Chatman, is going to attend and provide his bizarre insight into this very unique project. You probably haven't heard of this thing, and that's ok. I'm here to straighten it out for you.

FINAL FLESH is not exactly a film, at least not in the traditional sense. It's four short films based on a common premise and shot by four different "crews." The plot, if you can call it one, is a twisted nightmare: Two women and one man are facing the end of the world.

Chatman wrote four scripts and submitted them to specialty adult-video companies that cater to homemade scripts for niche fetishes. Rather than send a typical dirty scenario, however, Chatman wrote non-sexual, apocalyptic stories that the barely-capable actors and filmmakers then adapted into short, made-to-order videos. The results all share a tone of surreal hell, but with unique looks and performance styles.

If you don't recognize the name Vernon Chatman, it means you aren't watching the credits to some of the best television ever created. Chatman is the madman behind DOGGY FIZZLE TELEVIZZLE, XAVIER: RENEGADE ANGEL, and my personal favorite, WONDER SHOWZEN. That show was one of the best anti-comedy programs of the decade.

FINAL FLESH has a lot of that same energy as WONDERSHOWEN and DOGGY FIZZLE TELEVIZZLE, but forgoes some of the easier laughs for more conceptual head-scratching. This film is funny, its super weird, and its definitely unlike anything you've ever seen before. And with the creator Vernon Chatman live to answer all your questions, this is a must see event.

Get your tickets for this great show now. Perfect for a nightmarish double feature with TRASH HUMPERS at 7:00.

TRASH HUMPERS Monday-Wednesday at the Ritz

SXSW Presents: TRASH HUMPERS - Monday 6/28-Wednesday 6/30 at 7:00pm @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

To be honest, I'm not really sure what TRASH HUMPERS is. The trailer, which knocks my bloody socks off every time I see it, is actually terrifying. I'm not saying that lightly, as one might say about a run-of-the-mill horror film. This little bit or craziness makes me uncomfortable, like I'm watching something that is evil. And I like it.

The word that seems to be circulating among the critics is "nightmare." The film seems to capture something unconscious but definitely frightening. "TRASH HUMPERS follows a small group of elderly semi-mutants through the shadows and margins of an unfamiliar world," SXSW writes.

The film comes from the twisted mind of Harmony Korine, the auteur-provocateur who is responsible for KIDS, GUMMO, JULIEN DONKEY-BOY, and MISTER LONELY. His films are oft-despised for their upsetting aesthetic and unconventional, seemingly nonsensical flourishes, yet even his detractors cannot deny his ability to make a distressing picture. He is a master of the craft of unrest.

His new movie has gotten a lot of buzz, including a heap of controversy at our own SXSW. Some say this is his best picture in years, others walked out in disgust. What's it going to be for you?

Get your tickets for this great show now.

ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED w/ Live Score by MANY BIRTHDAYS

ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED - Sunday 6/27 at 7:00pm @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

Few films can lay claim to a visual aesthetic as wholly unique and pure as this one. Made in 1926, it is the oldest surviving animated film, but it's as timeless as tomorrow. Artist Lotte Reiniger painstakingly created a world in silhouette, inspired by Balinese shadow puppetry, using cardboard cutouts, animated with great skill and care. It's like being carried away by a beautiful dream as we follow Prince Achmed, mounted atop a magical flying horse, who overcomes trial after trial to defeat an evil sorceror and win the hand of a princess. Few subsequent films have been able to achieve a fraction of PRINCE ACHMED's wonder even with a budget of many millions more.

The score will be provided by Many Birthdays, who, in their words, encompass "dance, punk, cinema, noise, beats, words, color and texture using drums, echos, distortion and paint. Their shows are a mixture of voices, instruments, projected video, English and Japanese, chaos and construction." Join us for an evening of music, light and magic.

Get your tickets for this great show now

Your weekend plans should include heckling Vince Vaughn.

The Action Pack presents

JURASSIC PARK: THE LOST WORLD in HECKLEVISION!

Sunday, June 27 at the Ritz

Get tickets in advance HERE!

Unless they're the ultra-hilarious Master Pancake Theater, there's nothing more annoying than people heckling a movie. Their voices interrupt the characters, and even if their jokes are really good you end up missing some key line of dialog that would make the next joke even better. We first started doing Hecklevision because we thought, "Man it sure is fun drinking beer and making fun of movies, but how can we expand this from our living rooms to incorporate more people (like a whole theater full)?"

Enter Hecklevision - We pick some hilariously horrible movies (but movies we can't help but love anyway) and through the magic of MuVChat technology we let you text your heckles silently, then they appear up on the screen below the main action. When you don't have anything to contribute to the heckle conversation you can sit back and watch the movie and still hear every single line while enjoying other peoples heckles on the screen. The beauty of Hecklevision resides in the fact that you can assign yourself a nickname or none at all for when your heckle appears on screen, so if your joke totally bombs, no one has to know (except you). We started with the easy targets of Lifetime Original movies, but have since started going after the big boys because frankly, it's way more fun.

And this week is no exception with The Action Pack's presentation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park II in Hecklevision. When IMDB has such trivia listed for your movie as "As Kelly is doing her gymnastics in the shack before kicking the Raptor out, you can see the hand guards that gymnasts use," you know your movie is ripe for The Action Pack's Hecklevision treatment.

Seriously, apart from the overly elaborate teenage gymnastic raptor kicking, if you had a plan B site for your ridiculously expensive and wildly dangerous dinosaur operation, would you really not include fences? And if you're Steven Spielberg and you want to make a serious action movie, would you really cast Jeff Goldblum and Vince Vaughn as your dramatic leads? Well, hecklers, feel free to set your phones to pre-historic because we are going to blast this one back to the Triassic period. And if we can't blast, at least we know it might be susceptible to a uneven bar summersault kick.

(Greg MacLennan)

Talkin bout TRAMPLED UNDER FOOT! C3 PRESENTS offers up 3 pairs of tickets to Led Zeppelin 2, The Live Experience! Thursday July 1st @ La Zona Rosa!!

SXSW Presents IT CAME FROM KUCHAR

IT CAME FROM KUCHAR - Wednesday 6/23 at 7:00pm @Ritz
Advance tickets available here

The Kuchar Brothers, George and Mike, are the wittiest and most palatable of the underground filmmakers from the heyday of 8/16mm filmmaking in the 1960s. Unlike the dreadfully boring exercises of the structuralists like Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton, the baffling images of experimental filmmakers like Andy Warhol or Stan Brakhage, or even the surreal and indecipherable films of directors like Maya Deren and Kenneth Anger, the Kuchar Brothers’ films are fun, crazy, and accessible. Most importantly, they don’t feel like a school lesson.

Their style is a meshing of a lot of diverse instincts; utilizing home-movie techniques and film stock, a satirical use of high-camp, a handful of bizarre science fiction musings and a very unhealthy dash of good old fashioned American sleaze, their films are great because they exist in a space of free-spirited moviemaking, wholly outside of the Hollywood system but emulating the Hollywood film through excess.

There’s a new documentary about the brothers and their films. This doc is a detailed and humorous portrait of the Kuchar Brothers' life and work, and is filled with great interviews and stories about the 1960s and filmmaking in the shadows of American culture. Both brothers led unique and bizarre lives, and this movie captures the insane and twisted stories of George and Mike and the underground cinema movement in general.

This is a must see for anyone interested in alternative cinema, or even anyone interested in no-budget filmmaking generally.

Only 1 showing left of this great documentary. Wednesday 6/23 at 7:00pm.

Get your tickets for this great show now

SXSW Presents AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE this week at the Ritz

AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE
SUNDAY, MONDAY & WEDNESDAY AT RITZ
BUY TICKETS HERE

If you have the guts to face beasts and bare bodies, come explore the hidden history of the American exploitation film. This doc digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment. Exploitation cinema has left an indelible mark on American culture, and this informative and amusing documentary proves that its principles and popularity endure to this day.

Narrated by Robert Forster, AMERICAN GRINDHOUSE boasts an incredible list of interviewees, many of whom are speaking on-camera for the first time. The list includes Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, Don Edmonds, David Hess, Jack Hill, Jonathan Kaplan, John Landis, Herschell Gordon Lewis, William Lustig, Ted V. Mikels, Kim Morgan, Eddie Muller, Lewis Teague and Fred Williamson.

Get ready to have your brain's ass kicked.

For these special screenings, we'll be running 13 minutes of exclusive outtake interviews following the closing credits! DO NOT MISS!

Sponsored by SXSW

Ultimate JAWS Experience...2nd show added!

JAWS!!! on Lake Travis!
ADDED SHOW: Fri, July 3 - Tickets ON SALE TUES 6/22 at NOON!

The most legendary Rolling Roadshow event in history is BACK!

We've been doing Rolling Roadshows for years now, showcasing the finest films under the night sky in glorious 35mm, and Austin has been home to many of our very greatest events. But when people reminisce about Roadshow history, one show comes up without fail: The Ultimate JAWS Experience!

Well, we're fearlessly returning to the depths with a full-scale white-knuckle no-babies FLOATING JAWS SCREENING where YOU can watch the most terrifying aquatic horror film in history while adrift on an inner tube (supplied by us) in beautiful, deep, dark Lake Travis. We hereby guarantee the most heart-stopping screening on Earth, with a few added surprises to make sure you're awake and alert.

This event is limited, and considering the 2004 screening was the movie event of the year, we recommend you nab those spots quick! Tickets to the second show go on sale Tuesday June 22 at noon HERE!

Ultimate JAWS Floating Roadshow on sale Wednesday!

JAWS!!! on Lake Travis!
Fri, July 2 - Tickets HERE!

The most legendary Rolling Roadshow event in history is BACK!

We've been doing Rolling Roadshows for years now, showcasing the finest films under the night sky in glorious 35mm, and Austin has been home to many of our very greatest events. But when people reminisce about Roadshow history, one show comes up without fail: The Ultimate JAWS Experience!

Well, we're fearlessly returning to the depths with a full-scale white-knuckle no-babies FLOATING JAWS SCREENING where YOU can watch the most terrifying aquatic horror film in history while adrift on an inner tube (supplied by us) in beautiful, deep, dark Lake Travis. We hereby guarantee the most heart-stopping screening on Earth, with a few added surprises to make sure you're awake and alert.

This event is limited, and considering the 2004 screening was the movie event of the year, we recommend you nab those spots quick! Tickets go on sale Wednesday June 16 at noon HERE!

Austin's own LOVERS OF HATE at The Ritz!

LOVERS OF HATE with director Bryan Poyser!
Mon - Wed at Ritz

In this delicious tale of deceit and sibling rivalry, two adult brothers represent failure and success. Younger brother Paul is a successful author who writes Harry Potter-like fantasy novels for children, while Rudy, Paul's childhood collaborator on the stories, moves from job to job, unable to get started on his own novel - the long-gestating "Lovers of Hate." The one thing they do have in common is their love for Rudy's soon-to-be ex-wife. When opportunistic Paul whisks Diana away to a romantic mountain retreat, the lovers have no idea that Rudy has made it there first. From the shadows of the posh chalet, Rudy tries desperately to sabotage their relationship in director Bryan Poyser's (DEAR PILLOW) brilliantly executed game of cat and mouse.

LOVERS OF HATE delicately balances humor and despair while pushing characters to painful and hilarious extremes. Co-produced by Marcy Garriott (INSIDE THE CIRCLE) and Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass (THE PUFFY CHAIR, CYRUS).

Get your tickets HERE!

Get Zzanged! with ZAPPED!!!

Zzang!!!! presents ZAPPED!
Rare 35mm screening! Only 5 bucks!
Sunday at Ritz!

About ZZANG!!!: There is absolutely no disputing that the '80s were The Decade of FUN. Neon-streaked good times exploded worldwide in the form of celebrities (Pee-Wee, Mr. T, Max Headroom), music (punk, new wave, metal) and -- in an epic lightning bolt of unrelenting wildness -- MOVIES! Well, local spazzmatics Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly demand that YOU join us in hailing the Power of the '80s in the Alamo's newest monthly 35mm screening series: ZZANG!!!

Now...about ZAPPED!: Truly the most zzangin' scifi boner comedy of the '80s!!! Some would say ZAPPED! is simply the story of a high school chemist who gains the power to unhook bras with his brain. BUT!...they'd be neglecting to mention that it's a NUCLEAR DETONATION OF PURE ENTERTAINMENT!

That winning combination of Scott Baio and Willie Aames first found its footing in this unjustly disregarded send-up of Brian DePalma's CARRIE. Baio plays Barney, a junior genius who inadvertently creates a serum that allows him to perform any act he wishes. His newfound skills result in ripped blouses, flying ventriloquist dummies and more ripped blouses. Later, two bullies are given a mind-powered liftoff midway through a mooning, causing them to float through the air with their bare asses aimed at heaven.

But the film's most inspired moment comes courtesy of the great Scatman Crothers as the gym coach. After accidentally inhaling some chemically engineered SuperMarijuana, he hallucinates that he's riding a bicycle with Albert Einstein. Suddenly, the Scatman's wife appears on a Roman chariot, firing at them with a bazooka full of salami.

If this doesn't sound like fun to you, get the hell off my planet!! ZZANG!!!

Tickets HERE, for low '80s prices!

Pathos! Angst! Batman! Shrek! THE REINACTORS!

THE REINACTORS
Wed 9:30 at The Ritz!

This incredible, critically acclaimed doc interweaves the disparate lives of film character impersonators and celebrity look-a-likes on Hollywood Boulevard over the span of a year. Recognizable characters and stars of movies are portrayed by anyone who chooses to buy the costume and brave the mean streets of Hollywood.

These self-employed rogues forge a living one dollar at a time, posing for photos with tourists in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater. These street characters have big dreams of breaking into the big-time as they struggle to make ends meet. Freddy Krueger works alongside Superman, Marilyn Monroe, Shrek, Batman, Borat and Lucy Ricardo. Competing Chewbaccas, Spidermen and Captain Jack Sparrows vie for a spot on the limited real estate of The Walk Of Fame.

The story unfolds through their colorful day-to-day lives and incredibly dramatic back-stories. Director Markey says, "The doc plays like a great depression era Hollywood classic retold for the new millennium. It's also a film about the cutthroat nature backstage and behind the scenes of show business. A statement on where we're at culturally. An American Idol on crack, if you will."

Get your tickets here...cheap!

A "VERY SPECIAL" EPISODE!

A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE
Monday, 7:30 at The Ritz

A special one-time-only brainwrecker from the mad geniuses at The Cinefamily!

It's an all-too-familiar moment: the commercial fades, a somber piano line is struck, and in a low, austere rumble the announcer says "On a very special episode of..." Many a TV sitcom has been hazily defined in our memories by its "very special episodes"; the installments in which the monotony of lameness is broken by a confusing left turn into cheap, sappy dramatics. One of the ensemble cast gains a drug addiction, has a brush with death, experiences violence that hits close to home, etc.

Most often, these episodes have only the power to make one retch with their saccharine lip service to the "cause of the week" -- but then there are those rare occasions when, due to the intervention of the TV gods, things go off-the-cliff bat-shit crazy! Come see five of the finest examples of what happens when a Very Special Episode gets waaaaay too special, with child molestation, death scenes, cast members getting backhanded across the room by drunken guest stars, prostitution and more! The heart bleeds with excitement!!!

Cheap cheap cheap tickets HERE!

"And I DON'T wanna miss a thing!!!"

Action Pack Theater presents
ARMAGEDDON
Sunday, June 6 at the Ritz
Tickets here!

Live Explosions!

Before Michael Bay was tarnishing our childhoods with racially stereotyped robots, he was blowing our minds with threats of global annihilation and...regular human stereotypes. Ever since that marketing countdown clock appeared at my local cinema announcing ARMAGEDDON's arrival, I knew my world was going to change, and man did it ever! From that point on, I now rank all films on a one-to-five ARMAGEDDON scale: 1 being 1/10th as good as ARMAGEDDON, and 5 being half as good as ARMAGEDDON (which is as good as any movie could ever hope to be). Join us for Action Pack Theater Presents ARMAGEDDON where we will be embracing our natural handicap for immaturity and blowing as much pyro as we possibly can in the span of ARMAGEDDON's spectacular 150 minute run time. Join big dick Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) and his rag-tag group of roughnecks as they take 12 days to train for the world-saving mission no man at NASA would dare embark on: stop an asteroid the size of Texas from eliminating all life on Earth as we know it. We will be handing out confetti guns to recreate chaff floating around on the asteroid, also we might have some animal crackers for you to run around on your love ones tummy with while we sing along to the single greatest movie anthem of all time (suck it, TITANIC!), Aerosmith's I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing. So come on out and join the shuttles Freedom and Independence and do the same thing with other people at the exact same time, because otherwise, what the hell are we trying to save? (Greg MacLennan)

MOCK-yeah!-ING-yeah!-BIRD-yeah!

The Action Pack presents:
THE DUMB AND DUMBER QUOTE-ALONG
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
Thursday, June 3 at S. Lamar
TICKETS HERE!

I know what you're thinking. Just when you thought The Action Pack couldn't possibly be any dumber, we go and do something like this...and totally redeem ourselves!

Harry and Lloyd are traveling cross country to return a briefcase to the woman Lloyd loves. Sure he's only met her once, but she gave him that kind of old fashioned romantic feeling where he just knew he would do anything to bone her. Of course what these idiots don't know is they accidentally picked up a ransom briefcase and are being pursued by trained killers. This movie is a quote storm of non-stop hilarity. Even if you've never seen it before, where else can you see someone sell a beheaded bird to a blind child, a sheepdog van, and hear the most annoying sound in the world? Plus if you play your cards right you might be able to order up a ton of food and then Seabass the guy sitting next to you. If you promise to sing "Mockingbird" with us at The Action Pack's DUMB & DUMBER Quote Along we promise we won't put any Turbo Lax in your drinks...
(Greg MacLennan)