HIGH for the HOLIDAYS

The holidays are in full swing, and so is the annual HIGH FOR THE HOLIDAYS festival at the Alamo Ritz Theatre. We've brought back a lot of last year's favorites, including HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE featuring all-you-can-eat White Castle-style burgers, DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW, the classic pairing of Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz, and BEERFEST featuring live Beerlympics before the movie. But the runaway new hit premiere of the season is undoubtedly (GOOD) FRIDAY.



(GOOD)FRIDAY does what USA's Up All Night was always too scared to even try - we've taken the most profanity-laced film of all time and redubbed the audio so that all the bad words and drug references are gone. In their place we've added the most family-friendly white guy voice you've ever had the pleasure of hearing. Now, changing the dialogue from original lines like, "I don't give a f*ck" to the new, friendlier, "I don't really mind either way!" will, from time to time, change the entire meaning of the scene. But that's exactly what makes this new version of FRIDAY even funnier than the original. So grab a 40 oz of milk and head down to the Alamo Ritz this holiday season.

Sweeney Todd meat pies!

This weekend we've got a ton of great movies opening: JUNO at South Lamar will blow minds. Plus, we can't wait to see WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY and CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR at Village. But the food/movie pair-up of the season is SWEENEY TODD at South Lamar.



Johnny Depp plays a murdering barber who grinds up his victims and makes meat pies out of them! So of course we've got a phenomenal selection of meat pies for you to eat while enjoying the film.

Here's what John Bullington has pulled out of his giant chef hat for the occasion:

Hare Pie
Roasted rabbit with carrots, parsnips, potatoes and celery root in a rich baked into a rosemary crust 10.99

Shepherds Pie
Ground Thunderheart Bison with wild mushrooms topped with mashed yukon gold potatoes and Gloucester cheese. The Bison is all natural and grassfed, so tasty and so good for you! 9.99

Duck Pie
Confit of Duck with fennel, quince, leeks and turnips in a thyme cabernet sauce baked in a peppercorn crust 10.99

And for Dessert:

Blood Orange Pie 9.99
Chocolate Pecan Crust filled with a tangy blood orange filling and topped with honeyed mascarpone.

All savory pies served with fresh greens and white balsamic vinaigrette.

And here's what the critics are saying about SWEENEY TODD:

"Scary, monstrously funny and melodically thrilling. And Depp is simply stupendous." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"The performances are pitched at just the right scale: theatrically exaggerated but untainted by "Broadway" bombast. Who knew Burton would have such an uncanny feel for how to film a musical?" - David Ansen, Newsweek

Now Playing at Lamar - WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?

Ah, the season of Jesus, and also the season of shopping. It's the perfect time to check out award-winning doc and SXSW fave WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY. Follow Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse (the end of humankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt)!

As a special bonus, director Rob VanAlkemade will be live in person to introduce the shows on Saturday and Sunday nights!

Take heed brothers and sisters! The shopacalypse is upon us! America is fat with greed and addicted to shopping. Luckily, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir are here to save our souls from overspending!

In the weeks leading to Christmas, Reverend Billy and the Choir board a bus headed from advertising-thick Times Square through the heartland’s shopping malls to the commercial mecca—Disneyland. Part performance art, part spendthrift evangelism, they cross the US singing and preaching to spend gently. With the average American holding about $8,500 in credit card debt, his work is overdue.

Reverend Billy is serious in his message. He doesn’t preach the impossible task of never buying again, but encourages us to be mindful of where our dollars go. We visit a Main Street men’s clothing store struggling for customers against the Wal-Mart up the road and a line of Christmas shoppers waiting to buy an Xbox 360 lest they feel the wrath of their consumption-addicted children.

Billy and the choir go caroling to incite ‘change-a-lujah!’ along front porches in gated community and from church pulpits. They’re making trouble, evading Mall of America security, and just like the rest of us, they’re fighting the urge to buy for the sake of spending. By the time they get to Disneyland, you may find yourself converted, ready to buy American and swear-off big box stores in favor of your local merchants.

Official Site
Tickets and additional information

Now Playing - John Turturro's ROMANCE & CIGARETTES

"John Turturro's ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES is the real thing, a film that breaks out of Hollywood jail with audacious originality, startling sexuality, heartfelt emotions, and an anarchic liberty." - Roger Ebert

"There is more raw vitality pumping through ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES, John Turturro’s passionate ode to the sensual pulse of life in a working-class neighborhood of Queens, than in a dozen perky high school musicals." - NEW YORK TIMES

Part comedy, part romance, part drama, part musical, John Turturro’s ROMANCE & CIGARETTES teeters on the brink of collapse at every single moment, just like the filmfragile characters that inhibit the film’s frantic, manic world. The result is an unsettling, exhilarating, and thrillingly alive spectacle of a motion picture.

Nick Murder (James Gandolfini) is a blue-collar worker who falls under the spell of the gorgeous redhead Tula (Kate Winslet). But when his frustrated wife, Kitty (Susan Sarandon), finds out, the Murder family begins to short circuit. Of the three daughters--Constance (Mary-Louise Parker), Rosebud (Aida Turturro), and Baby (Mandy Moore)--Baby appears to be next in line for love, though no one approves of her choice of mate, the goofy Fryburg (Bobby Cannavale). Kitty’s absurd Cousin Bo (a hilarious Christopher Walken) helps her to track down Tula, but that proves to be a futile exercise as well. Along the way, there are crude coworkers (Steve Buscemi), annoying neighbors (Amy Sedaris), and brash in-laws (Elaine Stritch) to add even more zaniness to the proceedings. To make matters more bizarre, characters break out into song-and-dance routines whenever the fancy strikes them.

ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES blew audiences away at the Toronto Film Festival, but the studio has had a hard time figuring out what to do with this quirky, unclassifiable little gem. You may not yet be familiar with this movie, but take it from us, John Turturro has delivered a welcome breath of fresh air with ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES, now playing at the Alamo Downtown

Thursday: THE ARMY OF DARKNESS Quote-Along!

Recently, we've heard a few mumblings and mutterings of questions about our new Quote-Along series. "How do those work?" people ask. "Do you just yell? Are there subtitles? What else?" We figured that with this Thursday's ARMY OF DARKNESS Quote-Along being right around the corner, now was probably as good a time as any to answer some of those questions.

First off, yes, there are subtitles for some of the biggest quotes so that we can make sure that we all yell out the right phrase at the right time. But we generally let people yell out whatever quotes are they're favorites, whether they're titled or not, because we know that even though *we* think "Gimme some sugar, baby" is one of the greatest lines in cinematic history, other people might prefer "It's a trick, get an axe," and we don't want those people to be silenced.

But just as yelling out lines is an important part of a Quote-Along, there are still moments when Silence reigns supreme. That's because a Quote-Along is *not* a Heckle-Along, or a chance for that one jerk to ruin the movie for the rest of us by yelling out answers to all the lines. The Quote-Alongs are for the serious fanboys in all of us, those of us who think of the movie theater as our church, and so we yell out "Amen!" when the time is right, but we do not chit chat throughout the sermon that is the film.

Most of the Quote-Alongs also get jazzed up with some props. The first 96 people to this Thursday's ARMY OF DARKNESS Quote-Along, for instance, will be rewarded with their very own Boomstick to shoot throughout the show. We'll also be handing out sugar and unveiling a whole new line of props and toys that we can't talk about for fear of ruining some awesome surprises, but trust us when we say that we will be bringing the action from the screen right out into the theater.

Of course, reading about a new type of show is one thing, but the best thing to do is to come out and experience it for yourself. There is just no way for us to put into words the feelings of absolute joy and communion that can come from yelling out, "This... is my... BOOMSTICK!" in a darkened room full of other people who love every second of the same films you do. You will believe in love again. You will never fear death. The colors in the world around you will be a little bit brighter, and the food you taste will all be sweeter. Grab your tickets to the show either this Thursday or next, and we'll prove it to you.

Advance tickets to the Army of Darkness Quote-Along are available here.

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND AT THE ALAMO

Thanksgiving week is always a huge week for new release movies, and this year is no different. You can come out this weekend to get ENCHANTED, you can catch THE MIST, or you can see the new Todd Hayne's Bob Dylan biopic, I'M NOT THERE. But I've already talked about ENCHANTED in a video blog entry in the "Alamo News" section of this website. And THE MIST is the first pairing of Stephen King and Frank Darabont since THE GREEN MILE and SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, so if you don't already know that you should go see that then you're probably suffering from some sort of tumor. So I'm going to use the rest of this space to tell you why you should see I'M NOT THERE this holiday weekend as well.

Reason #1 - Haynes's decision to cast multiple actors as Bob Dylan in various periods of his life. That's right, instead of doing the regular movie tradition of casting one talented actor and then putting old guy make up on him for scenes from his later years, I'M NOT THERE casts - count 'em - SIX different actors to portray Dylan as the story moves from his early folk beginnings to his electric period and beyond.

Reason #2 - The actors cast as Dylan aren't just a bunch of ho-hum TV stars. Instead, you get Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, and in the most talked about turn, Cate Blanchett.

Reason #3 - Sorry, but I'm still on the cast here, because maybe even more exciting than seeing Blanchett as Dylan, you also get to see David Cross (from MR. SHOW if you're a comedy nerd like me, or the Never Nude from ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT if you were late to the awesomeness of Cross) as Allen Ginsberg. Yes!

Reason #4 - Todd Haynes actually managed to get Dylan's permission for the film, and his permission to get song rights.

Reason #5 - Stop listening to my reasons, and check out NPR's interview with Todd Haynes instead.

So there you have it. ENCHANTED, I'M NOT THERE, and THE MIST. A cornucopia of new movies that will be a feast for your eyes and ears and every bit as filling as the turkey or ham or cranberry sauce that will soon be oozing out of your pores.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN - Now Playing at the Ritz!

The best movie you will see all year is playing at the Alamo Ritz Theatre. This is no exaggeration, because this Friday we're opening NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the newest film from the Coen Brothers, and the one that all of the critics are saying hearkens back to their glory days of BLOOD SIMPLE and FARGO and delivers the Coen Brothers movie we've wanted to see for years. But don't take my word for it, watch the trailer posted above, and check out some of the reviews that have come in from advance screenings:

"A return to glory for the Coen Brothers, a revisiting of the formula that worked so well for them in Fargo, but with a darker, more cynical twist." (Cinemablend.com)

"An intense, nihilistic thriller as well as a model of implacable storytelling, this is a film you can't stop watching even though you very much wish you could." (Los Angeles Times)

"For formalists -- those moviegoers sent into raptures by tight editing, nimble camera work and faultless sound design -- No Country for Old Men is pure heaven." (New York Times)

"A brilliant example of how plot devices as simple as murder and money can be used to explore larger sweeping themes of mortality, morality and more -- while still delivering rousing, intelligent pure entertainment." (Cinematical)

This was the first new release film we screened at the Ritz, and for good reason - this is the Real Deal. Not only that, but it's one of those films that you NEED to see as soon as possible, because if you overhear people talking about it there are all sorts of spoilers that will start creeping into your subconscious no matter how much you try to keep yourself protected.

As always, it's more than just movies at the Alamo, and NCFOM is no exception. We'll have onscreen Coen Brothers trivia before the show, a barrage of vintage 35mm Coen Brothers trailers and there's even a rumor of a NCFOM inspired skull-crushing piston, courtesy of DorkBot. We'll also be the only theater in the country featuring a new 35mm trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Unlike the other trailer, this one was cut by the director himself and is only available at the Alamo.

If you've never been there before, check out the info section of the website for more details about parking at the Ritz.

Grab your tickets online here and head down to the Ritz this weekend. You'll thank me. You'll thank yourself. You'll thank the Coen Brothers. Tickets are already starting to go fast and seating is limited at the Ritz, so we highly encourage you to get tickets early.