More details inside...
recently vacated Village Cinema Four.
of it's second location at the
is proud to announce the opening
The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema
JUNE 30
APRIL 1
THE GIFT
( 3 stars, Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times)
Consider Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett), the heroine of
"The Gift." Her husband was killed in an accident a
year ago. She has three kids. She gets a government
check, which she supplements by reading cards and
advising clients. She doesn't go in for mumbo-jumbo.
She takes her gift as a fact of life; her grandmother had
it and so does she. She looks at the cards, she listens to
her clients, she feels their pain, she tries to dispense
common sense. She is sensible, courageous and good.
She lives in a swamp of melodrama; that's really the
only way to describe her hometown of Brixton, Ga.,
which has been issued with one example of every
standard Southern gothic type. There's the battered
wife and her redneck husband; the country club
sexpot; the handsome school principal; the weepy
mama's boy who is afeared he might do something real
bad; the cheatin' attorney; the salt-of-the-earth sheriff,
and various weeping willows, pickup trucks, rail
fences, country clubs, shotguns, voodoo dolls,
courtrooms, etc. When you see a pond in a movie like
this, you know that sooner or later, it is going to be
dredged.
"The Gift" could have been a bad movie, and yet it is a
good one because it redeems the genre with the
characters. Blanchett's sanity and balance as Annie
Wilson provide a strong center, and the other actors in
a first-rate cast go for the realism in their characters
instead of being tempted by the absurd. The movie was
directed by Sam Raimi and written by Billy Bob
Thornton and Tom Epperson. They know the territory.
Raimi directed Thornton in "A Simple Plan" (1998), that
great movie about three buddies who find a fortune
and try to hide it; Thornton and Epperson wrote "One
False Move" (1992), about criminals on the run and old
secrets of love.
The movie is ingenious in its plotting, colorful in its
characters, taut in its direction and fortunate in
possessing Cate Blanchett. If this were not a crime
picture (if it were sopped in social uplift instead of
thrills), it would be easier to see the quality of her
work. By the end, as all hell is breaking loose, it's easy
to forget how much everything depended on the
sympathy and gravity she provided in the first two
acts. This role seems miles away from her Oscar-
nominated "Elizabeth" (1998), but after all, isn't she
once again an independent woman surrounded by
men who want to belittle her power, seduce her, frame
her or kill her? A woman who has to rely on herself
and her gifts, and does, and is sufficient.
SNATCH
( 4 out of 5 stars, Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle(
Ritchie's follow-up to last year's smash hit Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels is likely to polarize the critical
camps (and already has, for the most part). Its hyper-
violent comic bloodshed is sure to offend some, while
others will embrace the film's ferocious editing and
manic, rocket-fueled pace (courtesy of editors Jon
Harris and Les Healey). And then there's Tim Maurice-
Jones' snappy, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink
cinematography. Snatch is nothing if not watchable: It
has the insane, popcorn rhythms of a Road Runner
cartoon, and for that reason alone it's a minor
masterpiece. Never have so many characters done so
much damage to each other with such an interesting
assortment of ordnance. In this respect the film echoes
the wild excesses of the gangsterific shoot-'em-ups
arriving from Hong Kong circa 1990. It's John Woo
minus the thieves' code of honor, transposed to
modern-day comic-Cockney London. In other ways,
Snatch also updates classic British heist comedies such
as Charles Crichton's celebrated The Lavender Hill Mob --
no Alec Guinness, of course, but we do get ex-soccer
bad boy Vinnie Jones and an incomprehensible Brad
Pitt. It's almost a fair trade. Like Ritchie's previous film,
Snatch revolves around a spindly series of often-
confusing storylines that eventually meet up and pay
off, big-time, in the final reel. There's the unlicensed
boxing-match promoters Turkish (Statham, who also
narrates the proceedings) and Tommy (Graham), who
run afoul of vicious bastard Brick Top (Ford) when their
fighter takes a permanent dive into oblivion. In his
place, they enlist the aid of Irish Gypsy bare-knuckles
boxer Mickey O'Neil (Pitt), a fast-talking schemer with a
penchant for first-round K.O.s. Then there's Avi
(Farina), a New York-based diamond importer on the
trail of a 84-carat super-rock stolen from Antwerp by
gambling-obsessed Frankie Four-Fingers (Del Toro).
Avi, his British connection Doug the Head (Reid), and a
trio of East-London lowlifes (James, Gee, Ade) are all
involved in the race for this mighty chunk of inanimate
carbon against the legendary Azbekistani psycho-killer
Boris the Blade (Serbedzija), who, like everyone else in
Snatch, wants the rock for himself. Ritchie pulls out all
the stops with Snatch -- the film has (rightly) been
compared to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,
although it certainly feels as though Ritchie is trying to
top himself here, and to his credit (and my amazement)
he does. Snatch is a tighter, more resilient film than its
predecessor in every way right down to the opening
titles. It reminds me of when a young Aussie
wunderkind named George Miller pulled off the
unthinkable and topped Mad Max with the exuberantly
psychotic The Road Warrior. I've said it before and I'll
say it again: Now that's entertainment!
TRAFFIC
( 4 out of 5 stars, Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle(
Far and away the best film of the year, and perhaps of
the past decade as well. At its core, the film is a sober-
minded look at the drug trade, from an all-inclusive
angle that takes on both the War on Drugs'
policymakers in our nation's capital to the dealers,
users, cops and DEA agents on the streets, and
everyone in between. Instead of taking the easy way
out, with a blanket statement about the inherent evils
the international drug market creates, Soderbergh
tackles virtually every angle of the hellish business of
drugs and drug control. He's like a naturalist poking
around in the brush, overturning every rock he finds to
reveal the slimy, crawling creatures beneath, holding
them up to the light and allowing us a painfully clear-
eyed view of their squirmings. The film intertwines
three distinct storylines. All three of these complex
storylines are interwoven so skillfully that the whole
nasty affair plays out like a modern-day Dickens novel,
if A Tale of Two Cities had featured shoot-outs and
teenage whoring. Unlike the pale, dry scenes on the
Mexican side of the border, Soderbergh shoots the
Washington and Georgetown locales through a heavy
blue filter, emphasizing the duplicitous, shadowy
goings-on. On either side of this so-called "war,"
however, the level of intrigue is virtually equal: There
are no good guys in Soderbergh's tale, and even those
closest to the law are tainted. Traffic, surprisingly,
features a couple of the year's best cameos: Real-life U.S.
politicians, such as Senators Orrin Hatch and Barbara
Boxer, turn up in a D.C. party scene. In such a massive,
thoroughly impressive cast as this one, it's difficult to
single out a single actor as The One, but Benicio Del
Toro's scruffy Tijuana cop is, frankly, a revelation. His
jaw-droppingly smooth portrayal of Javier Rodriguez, a
generally decent sort of man caught up in a web of
officially sanctioned bullshit so sublime and massive
that its very existence boggles the mind, is amazing. His
is the sort of performance that Best Actor awards are
made for, and this one role single-handedly redeems an
entire year's worth of multiplex crud. Nearly as
amazing is Erika Christensen's long, slow ride to hell as
Caroline. By the time Michael Douglas hits the streets to
search for his lost progeny, it's like George C. Scott's
similar odyssey in Hardcore, only worse. There's not a
bad or flat performance on display here, an amazing
thing given the size, scope, and running time (147
minutes) of the film. What's even more amazing is the
fact that Soderbergh has managed to accomplish in one
film what policymakers on both sides of the Drug War
fence have been trying to do for decades. He brings the
war back home and lets us view its ravages from
seemingly every angle at once. It's a thrilling, powerful
movie, and one that certain people in certain quarters
may have at one time called dangerous. Some of them
may yet still.
O, BROTHER
WHERE ART THOU
(3.5 out of 5 stars, Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle)
Whether you leave the theatre loving or hating the Coen
brothers' latest is going to depend a lot on your past experiences
with their films. The Barton Fink camp -- serious, edgy,
surrealists all -- are likely to find the proceedings here too silly.
It's the Coens at their most goofy, raising the stakes on Raising
Arizona's low-brow shenanigans by expanding the canvas to
include not just the dusty backwater burgs they love so well,
but also the whole of Depression-era Americana. It's a
sprawling film and the comic tone matches Joel and Ethan's
broad, comic brushstrokes to a T -- this is what you get when
you give these two sufficient finishing funds (you can thank
France's Studio Canal) and zero suits-on-set. Silly or not,
however, the fact remains that O Brother is a remarkable film.
From its performances on down to director of photography
Roger Deakins' sun-baked, dirty-ochre cinematography, the film
is all of a piece. As the opening titles inform us, the plot owes
much to Homer's Odyssey (although the Coens themselves have
gone on record saying that, really, they hadn't bothered to read
the damn thing until just lately). Clooney, Turturro, and Nelson
are, respectively, Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and
Delmar O'Donnell, a trio of chain-gang escapees seeking a
(possibly mythical) treasure while on the lam from a diabolical
sheriff. Their travels take them all across the depressed,
dustbowl South, out of one jam and into another, their paths
crossing and re-crossing a bizarre series of characters (some
fictional, some less so) until they finally return to their “home”
and accomplish Everett's main mission: the search for his
estranged wife Penny (Hunter). While the film may at first seem
to be little more than a finely crafted cluster of Coen-style set-
pieces (which, in many ways, it is), the whole of it is
thematically united by a particularly affecting
Americana/bluegrass score from the likes of Harry McLintock,
Emmylou Harris, Allison Krauss, and the Soggy Bottom Boys.
The latter is in reality Clooney, et al. The boys on the lam are the
boys in the band, having recorded an unknown-to-them hit
record that becomes the film's unofficial theme song. It's worth
the price of admission (and then some) to see Clooney perform
the track in disguise and onstage at a political rally overseen by
Charles Durning's scheming Governor Pappy O'Daniel. Again,
it's silly stuff to see this American heartthrob and icon dancing
about like a scarecrow on corn liquor, but it's also one of the
most commanding comic performances I've seen lately. At his
best, Clooney, who seems to be channeling the spirit of Johnny
Depp as Ed Wood by way of Errol Flynn, could give Jim Carrey
a run for his money -- the role is that outrageous. As in most
Coen brothers films, it's the smaller roles that make the film.
John Goodman's Cyclopean bible salesman turns out to be both
a hoot and a holler, and The Practice's Michael Badalucco -- as
gangster George “Don't call me Babyface” Nelson -- is one of
the Coens' better sidetracks into human parody. I wouldn't
agree that this is the Coen brother's best film, as some have said.
Fargo and the underrated The Hudsucker Proxy are more fluid
and rely less on their penchant for unstable comic characters.
But O Brother manages to be somehow more sympathetic to
these oafish-seeming simpletons. By the end of the film you
realize nothing in the filmmakers' world is as simple as it at first
appears.
Write something here
BLOW
excerpted from Harry Knowles Ain't It Cool News Review
The first GREAT film of 2001, that I know for certain about,
will be being released sometime in April. Many of you will
not believe me, that’s fine. Be skeptical… walk into that
theater thinking I’ve pulled down the big bucks for hyping
this if you must, but I’m telling you… In the same type of
genre as GOODFELLAS… I prefer BLOW. And when I last
talked to Moriarty… he was in the same boat. Why?
First it starts with the script by David McKenna (AMERICAN
ALAMO
HISTORY X) and Nick Cassavetes. McKenna brought an
amazing structure to the film… condensing a man’s entire life
into a feature film. Cassavetes placed that man’s soul into the
film. This is the true story about a man you probably have
DRAFTHOUSE
never heard of. He is sitting in a Federal Prison for bringing in
a shipment of cocaine. It wasn’t a GIGANTIC deal. He’ll be
NORTH
out in 2015 or so. But this man has touched and affected the
lives of nearly everyone on the planet because he happened to
be a connection… a piece to the puzzle, the key guy that
OPENING SOON!
brought cocaine into the United States through a partnership
In the current climate of rampant theater closures in Austin,
with Pablo Escobar. America’s cocaine problem started
Tim and Karrie League, owners of the Alamo Drafthouse
through this man and a barber… began on beach selling pot
Cinema, offer a small piece of positive news. We are proud to
with his childhood best friend to surfers and beach bunnys.
announce that we have signed a lease with the Village Shopping
Did you ever see that PBS series on how the Personal
Center to renovate and take over operations of the Village
Computer came to be? About that group of slackers drinking
Cinema on Anderson Lane. The Theater will be called: The
canned cokes and eating pizzas while being stoned and
Alamo Drafthouse North (at the Village). We will be extending
screwing around and making that first PC? I remember while
out concept of dinner, drinks and movies to the north Austin
watching that thing that I was just beside myself with awe at
location. The Village will continue to operate as a first run
how something so world changing could’ve come from
theater on three screens and one screen will be a rotating
something as simple as a bunch of buddies shooting the shit
screen, showing calendar films, eclectic programming and local
and activating and working on their ‘crazy idea’. George Jung
films. The theater will also be available for parties, meetings
and California with that group of people happened to be the
and special events during off hours, and there is ample parking
kindling that began the fire that swept up the entire world…
day and night to accomdate meetings and movie screenings. We
still affects the entire world.
will be completely renovating the interior, adding Dolby sound
What is brilliant though is we see how something like this
to the screens and replacing the existing seating.  We hope that
happens. We see that it wasn’t this EVIL man out to ruin
the Alamo Drafthouse North will be a welcome addition to the
millions of lives… but just a guy trying to make a buck and
film scene, and we look forward to working with and serving
stick by his friends… trying to hop around the system…
the Austin community to bring more good movies to our city.
This is quite possibly the best film I have seen come out of
We expect to be open in mid to late June, so stay posted to
New Line. I was completely engrossed by the film…. I am
www.drafthouse.com for details about the opening date and the
definitely set to pick up the Bruce Porter book that the film
big opening bash!
was based on. I was devastated by the film.
When it came to a close and I was actively sobbing, I saw
Moriarty facing the wall and hand abreast his temples. Mongo
landed on the floor… flat on his ass. We were sucker
punched… the air taken out of us. It is personal and told with
all the heart in the world. As you watch it, you can’t help but
to feel great remorse for a man that caused more suffering and
bliss than any man has any right to.
It is a story about human nature, about repeating mistakes
Since September, 2000 MR. SINUS has been selling out weekly
you thought you learned from, about tragedy and elation. This
shows at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas. Fans
is the story about cocaine and the United States, and I hope to
God NEW LINE markets the hell out of this one, and re- of comedy, film, and, of course, the Mystery Science Theater
releases it this Fall for awards considerations. The music, 3000 television program have been filling the seats, hungry for
cinematography, acting, writing and direction are absolutely this unique multimedia event. Mr. Sinus picks up where the
of the finest possible quality. Look for Moriarty’s review very now-defunct TV show left off, only this time the comedians are
soon. I’m sure he is going to be just as happy with it as me. live, front row center at the theater. This quarter, check out
And as for you… Just be content with the knowledge that the screenings of Xanadu and Star Trek 5: the Final Fronteir. The
possibility is very high that you’ll see at least one truly great regular Mr. Sinus slot is now Fridays at 9:30, but Check the
film this year… calendar, www.drafthouse.com or the weekly Chronicle for
showtimes.
 APRIL 1-JUNE 30
2001
The Austin Chronicle and Vulcan Video Present:
PEDICAB DRIVER
APRIL 1, 6:00 & 8:45
(1989, d. Sammo Hung, 95 min., $6.50, 4.50 student) You would
think a typical pedicab driver from Macao wouldn't get into much
trouble, right? Unfortunately, if your pedicab driver is Sammo
Hung, trouble always comes calling. Fortunately, Sammo knows
kung-fu and is readily prepared to use it. Pedicab Driver balances
itself between being a softhearted love story and a brutal revenge
tale. A strange mix that results in one of Sammo's finest
performances as well as directing effort. PD is worth the price alone
just to see Sammo and HK great Lau Kar Leung (Liu Chia Liang) go
toe to toe!
APR 4 - MIDNIGHT
MISTER SCARFACE
(d. Fernando Di Leo, 1976, free admission, a.k.a. Blood and Bullets,
The Big Boss and Scarface Killer) Neglected Italian crime film starring
Jack Palance as the Scarface Killer. Di Leo also directed Wipeout,
featured in last year's QT Quattro film festival.
PANDORA'S BOX
Live musical accompaniment by the Golden Arm Trio
APRIL 4 & 10, 7:00 & 9:45
(1929, d. G.W. Pabst, 100 min, $10, $12 day of show) G.W. Pabst's
creation scandalized Berlin when it was released in 1929 and his
adaptation of Frank Wedekind's play continues to marvel audiences
today. It showcases the pioneering talents of Louise Brooks, a
young, relatively inexperienced American actress the director
favored over Marlene Dietrich. Pabst and Brooks' portrayal of a
seductive but otherwise innocent prostitute who unwittingly brings
down all who come in contact with her ushered in a revolutionary
consciousness in popular art that clashed with Hollywood, censors,
and other guardians of public morality, but nevertheless lives on
today. The Golden Arm Trio has composed and performed
numerous silent film scores for the Alamo's silent film series, which
have all received lavish praise from audiences and press alike::
Battleship Potemkin, The Wind, The Lost World (with Brown Whornet)
and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (with Friends of Dean Martinez). "Golden
Arm Trio's Graham Reynolds' exquisitely furrowed performances
on both piano and percussion continue to be just as awe-inspiring
as his compositions. Is there anything this man can't do?" --Greg
Beets, Austin Chronicle
SUPAREAL: LIVE DJ'S vs ANIME
THURS-SAT APRIL 5-7 MIDNIGHT
($6, $4.50 students) Imagine a silent movie with beats instead of an
orchestra, or seeing a film where the composer of the score is right
in the middle of the action: supareal is all that and more. In the
tradition of the Alamo Drafthouse's silent film/alternative scores
series, supareal blends Japanese animation and dj culture. Each
night features a different set of DJs and different anime features.
Thursday (Double Bill): Luna vs. Kite and grant stevens vs. Lain
Friday: grant stevens vs. Perfect Blue
Saturday (Tag Team): Jason Jenkins and Coy C vs. Ninja Scroll
Perfect Blue will be screened in 35mm, all others, digital video
The Austin Film Society presents:
THE TEXAS DOCUMENTARY TOUR
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CHICKEN
WED, APRIL 11, 7:30
(d. Mark Lewis, 60 min., $6, $4.50 students, KLRU members & AFS)
Most of us best know the chicken from our dinner plates: whether
as thigh, wing or drumstick. We barely pause a moment to consider
the bird's other virtues. This new film by Mark Lewis (Cane Toads
and RAT) expands the frontiers of popular awareness and
delightfully exposes how this small, common and seemingly simple
animal can reveal itself to be as complex and grand as any of God's
creatures. The film not only allows us to rethink our relationship
with a creature we have heretofore taken for granted but also it
provides us a lens by which we look at ourselves. A "Natural
History" for an animal like no other.
APR 11 - MIDNIGHT
THE CRAVING
(1980, d. Paul Naschy (Jacinto Molina), free admission) A.k.a
Return of the Wolf Man. An evil witch brings back to life the
infamous Elizabeth Bathory, who was executed several centuries
ago for murdering young women and bathing in their blood.
Naschy is a God of Spanish horror cinema.
THURS-SAT, APRIL 12-14 MIDNIGHT
(1994, d. Kevin Smith, 92 min, $5) Fresh out of film school (yes, he
went), Smith directed a modest 16mm black and white feature with a
budget not even sufficient for a car purchase. But with help from a
multi-credited cast and a script full of witty bar-stool jokes with
language that would ban you from grandma's house forever, the
result: is an instant cult classic. Clerks is Kevin Smith's theatrical
debut (initially released on a whopping 50 screens) and hits a chord
with today's "tweener"-aged crowd. The far-from-Baby-Boomers, but
not quite Gen-Xers get the most out of this flick. Throw in a high
school degree and your enjoyment level increases ten-fold. See
deleted scenes, the alternate ending and rare Kevin Smith tidbits
before the film.
CINE LAS AMERICAS
APRIL 13 & 14
Cine Las Americas is celebrating its fourth festival of New Latin
Cinema in 2001 and again is showcasing contemporary films from
diverse Latino cultures such as South America, the Caribbean, and
the United States.
The Cinematexas International Short Film Festival presents
MIGRATING FORMS & PLEASURELAND
WED, APRIL 18 9:30
(Migrating Forms, Winner of the Best Feature Award at the 2000
New York Underground Film Festival, $5, $4 student) A man and
woman meet in his apartment for an anonymous game of sexual
"chicken," indulging their darker appetites for gratification and
psychological mastery until one of them cracks. "This homemade
feature puts all our stupid, starstruck, shopping-mall indies to
shame. Fotopoulos is the most important new director I've seen in
many years, creating distinctive visions seething with ontological
unease." - Ed Halter, Year End Top Ten List, NY Press. Screening
before the feature will be the locally-shot short film Pleasureland,
directed by Bryan Poyser. A video store customer discovers that the
porno tapes he rents are actually people, fully ready to give him
what he wants. Both James Fotopoulos and Bryan Poyser will be in
attendance at the screening.
APR 18 - MIDNIGHT
PRISON GIRLS
(1972. d. Tom Disimone, free admission) From the director of
Chatter Box and Reform School Girls comes the most controversial
movie ever made based on confidential prison sex reports. With
this film, we guarantee a doosie.
CEMETERY MAN
APRIL 19-21 MIDNIGHT
(1994, d. Michele Soavi, 100 min., a.k.a. Dellamorte Dellamore, $5)
Soavi transcends the Italian Giallo tradition to give us not only
enough art and philosophy, but plenty of wanton and hilarious
violence to digest. Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding, A
Midsummer Night's Dream) stars as Francesco Dellamorte, a
gravekeeper in an Italian village. For some unexplainable reason,
the dead have the habit of rising from their graves a week after
their deaths, and it is up to Dellamorte and his misshapen, retarded
assistant Naggi to put them back in their graves (via ye old
Fulci/Romero fashion i.e. shooting them in the head). A series of
bizarre circumstances befall Dellamorte, as he tries to make sense
out of a world falling apart around him.
THE GOLD RUSH
Live musical accompaniment by The Asylum Street Spankers
APRIL 25, 7:00 & 9:45
(d. Charlie Chaplin, 1925, 81 min, $10, $12 day of show) Chaplin
conceived this oddball tale from accounts of the Donner party
cannibal tragedy in the western Sierras. In fact, much of the film
was shot outside Truckee, only miles from the site of the famous
incident. Austin's infamous old-timey acoustic ensemble, The
Asylum Street Spankers perfectly compliment the mood and style
of the hard-drinking, hard-living prospector town. The Spankers
premiered this score at the Alamo last year and have since toured it
everywhere from Hoboken to San Francisco.
APR 25- MIDNIGHT
RUN ANGEL RUN
(1969, d. Jack Starret, 95 min., free admission) King of the biker
movies, William Smith (Any Which Way You Can, Invasion of the Bee
Girls) sells out his motorcycle gang for a national magazine article
and has to go on the lam to escape the wrath of the California biker
community . Director Jack Starret also directed such cultural
milestones as the Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch and Quentin
Tarantino's fave: The Dion Brothers.
The Aurora Picture Show presents
BEST OF THE AV GEEKS
THURS, APRIL 26 9:30
($6, $4.50 students) Skip Elsheimer, founding geek of Raleigh,
North Carolina's A/V Geeks, comes to the Alamo with fabulously
bizarre educational and training films from his immense film
collection. "I now find myself with more than 8000 16mm
educational films in my house. I spent most of the nineties
collecting film from school and government auctions. These films
were regarded as obsolete and useless by the state who would take
anything to get rid of them. If I didn't get them, who knows where
they would have ended up - a dumpster, maybe? So now I show
the films every chance I get and have planned various projects, to
exploit their hidden celluloid riches. " Skip Elsheimer, AV Geeks In
this program expect to see gory fake industrial accidents, a Disney
animated sex ed film, a film about meat processing and marching
bands, an LSD trip film and more!
SHOGUN ASSASSIN
THURS-SAT APRIL 26-28 MIDNIGHT
(1980, d. Kenji Misumi, 86 min., $5) Itto Ogami is the Official
Decapitator for the Shogun, who has apparently gone either
impossibly corrupt or insane (the Shogun, not Ogami). The Shogun
sends ninja to kill Ogami, but they only slay his wife instead,
leaving the executioner to care for his infant son, Daigoro. Ogami
instructs the infant to choose between a brightly colored ball, and
his unsheathed sword. If the child chooses the ball, Ogami will
send him "to be with his mother". Daigoro, however, reaches for the
naked steel, and so begins their journey on "the road to hell". And
that road proceeds to be littered with the corpses slain by Ogami's
blade. Don't expect the elegiac grace of the Chinese martial arts
films here; the fights are nasty, brutish, and short - Ogami can kill
with one blow, and doesn't like to waste time - but they're still
crackling with a creative energy rare in western films of this sort.
Apparently in medieval Japan, all the men had approximately five
gallons of blood in their body, under enormous pressure. Damn
near everybody gets to die an ugly, ridiculously gushing death.
BIG GUNDOWN
SAT, APRIL 28, 7:00 PM
(d. Sergio Sollima, 1966, R, $15) Sergio Sollima's gripping and
operatic spaghetti western is one of the greatest in this under-rated
sub genre. Lee Van Cleef was never better than here as Jonathan
Corbett,a legendary gunfighter and would be congressman who is
hired to track down a child murderer. His pursuit of this man,
played with panache by Thomas Milian, is plagued by doubts that
maybe this is not the man he should be chasing. These doubts are
well realised and lead to the final big gundown that gives the film
its title.The music by Ennio Morricone is rousing and memorable
and gives this exciting film its own identity. - imdb. All you can eat
Spaghetti Western, tickets go on sale March 28 at 5:00 PM, Tickets
are $15 and include all you can eat pasta, focaccia and Caesar salad.
Ain't It Cool News, The Austin Chronicle, Sapient & Big Brothers
Big Sisters present the Saturday Morning Film Club
EXPLORERS
SAT, APRIL 28, 12:00 NOON
(1985, d. Joe Dante, 109 min., free admission for kids and
accompanying adults) Although it features great performances by
young up-and-comers Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, Joe Dante's
Explorers is all but forgotten a mere 16 years after it's original
release. It came close on the heels of the mighty Goonies and Back to
the Future, and was a bit lost in their collective wake. The Saturday
Morning Film Club team, however, feel that Explorers deserves
another look. From a kid's perspective, Explorers is the coolest
story ever told; three best friends build a rocket ship in their
backyard and blast off to meet an alien spaceship. Every child I
have ever known that has watched this movie has been enraptured,
even motivated at the end of the film. Dust off the Radio Shack 101
Electronic Projects kit, because after Explorers you may have a
budding rocket scientist on your hands.
MAY 2 - MIDNIGHT
SAVAGE STREETS
With Linda Blair as a sometimes topless, crossbow wielding, 80's
street punk vigilante, how far wrong can you go? Undefensable
exploitation from the last great decade of the genre. There's enough
jarring 80's in this flick to make your eyes bleed.
BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
THURS-SAT, MAY 3-5 MIDNIGHT
(1989, d. Stephen Herek, 90 min., $5) Early in his career, Keanu
Reeves took the role he was destined to play, a role that continues
to creep into every performance he has given since: Ted "Theodore"
Logan. Some deem Bill and Ted as the nadir of post-modernity,
where history is flattened out, where the dead, largely white,
largely European-American, largely male Great Figures are made
the subject of infantile mockery, taken out of the period in which
they dominated and dumped into one where the majority of yokels
don't even know their name. We here at the Alamo don't know
much about that. What we do know is this movie ROCKS, it's one
of the funniest, most-quoted, worthy-of-repeat-viewing teen
movies ever created, and bringing this class of movie to you may
just be the Alamo's predestined purpose. Before the film check out
the World Premiere of the locally made short: Bill and Ted's Matrix.
Vulcan Video and the Austin Chronicle present
Hong Kong Sundays
FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE
SUN, MAY 6 6:00 & 8:45
(d. Stephen Chow, 1994, $6.50 adult, $4.50 student) The comic
stylings of Stephen Chow Sing Chi once again grace the
Alamo screen for a 3rd Hong Kong Sunday. If you missed God
of Cookery or Forbidden City Cop then this is another perfect
opportunity to be introduced to the Chinese Mo Lai Tao
(translated as "makes no sense") comedy. FBWL delivers
action, romance, and comedy in true HK fashion. The plot
concerns 007's return to service from a hiatus as a meat
vendor. Expect to see familiar "hong kong-ified" elements
from the James Bond series- gadgets, guns and girls!
MAY 9 - MIDNIGHT
CAN I DO IT TILL I NEED GLASSES
(d. I. Robert Levy, 1974, R, free admission, 73 min.) Robin
Williams' first feature film effort is a wacky sex comedy, the
likes of which hasn't been seen in theaters in 20 years.
MAY 11 9:30
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
MAY 10-12 MIDNIGHT
(d. Frank Oz, 1986, PG-13, $5, 94 min.) "At a time when so many
movies show such cold-blooded calculation, here's one heedless
enough to be fun. Little Shop of Horrors arrives with enough baggage
to make it into a thoroughly timid project - what is less likely to
make a fresh movie than a long-running stage hit? - and yet the
movie has the offhand charm of something that was concocted over
the weekend. This is not only a musical and a comedy, as we
expected, but also a revue of sorts: Comic actors such as Bill Murray,
John Candy and James Belushi have walk-ons, and Steve Martin
almost steals the show as a sadistic, motorcycle-riding dentist. Yet at
the heart of the movie is a basic sweetness, an innocence that extends
even to the centerpiece of the story, which is a man-eating plant
named Audrey."- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
MAY 16- MIDNIGHT
MR. MEAN
(d. Fred Williamson, 1977, R, free admission) Fred Williamson
directs and stars (as Mr. Mean) in this blaxploitation classic from
1977, features a really cool performance by the Ohio Players.
Forgotten gem from Fred "THE HAMMER" Williamson.
THE LOST BOYS
Mullet Tribute Night, sport a mullet, get in for $2
MAY 17-19 MIDNIGHT
(1987, d. Joel Schumacher, 97 min., $5) Recent divorcee Lucy
Emerson and her two sons, Michael and Sam, move to Santa Carla
California to start a new life. It turns out Santa Carla is the murder
capitol of the world. It's not a surprise when the town turns out to be
crawling with the undead. It isn't long before Michael falls for a
beautiful girl at an amusement park and soon finds himself
enmeshed in the politics of a vampire underworld. When Sam and
his new friends begin to suspect Michael of being a vampire the plot
begins to thicken. Before the film, see the Alamo's special mullet
slide show and register to win a copy of the infamous mullet book.
MAY 18 9:30
AN ALAMO REMOTE SITE EVENT
DELIVERANCE
ON THE BANKS OF THE COLORADO
SAT & SUN, MAY 19 & 20
(d. John Boorman, 1972, R, 102 min.) Join the Alamo for the first in a
series of non-traditional cinema outings: a canoe trip down the
lower Colorado, terminating in a barbeque and concert by the side
of the river. When the sun goes down, the 35mm projector will fire
up and we will watch Deliverance on a full size movie screen erected
on the banks of the rushing river. Deliverance is a shocking film
classic. Based on the powerful James Dickey romance, the plot goes
like this: four friends decide to spend the weekend descending the
dangerous and treacherous rapids of Georgia's last unpolluted
river, willing to test their manhood in this hostile environment.
This is just the premise of the most distressing and astonishing
motion picture filmed back in the seventies. With a budget no
higher than 2 million dollars, the English filmmaker John Boorman
directed this terrific masterpiece about human cruelty (represented
by the local's inhabitants) and the fight for survival that lives inside
every mans heart (represented by Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned
Beatty and Ronny Cox). Vilmos Szigmond's blinding photography
opposes two "parts": the untouched nature's beauty and the
perversity that waits for them in the margins. Tickets are $50, and
include canoe or kayak rental, food, beer, and the movie. Tickets for
this event go on sale April 19 at 5:00 PM at the Alamo box office.
MAY 23 - MIDNIGHT
MAN FROM DEEP RIVER
(1973, d. Umberto Lenzi, Free admission, Aka: Sacrifice, Mondo
Cannibale, Deep River Savages and the Last Survivor) Man From Deep
River is an early entry into the long tradition of Italy-spawned
white-man-learning-the-savage-ways-of-the-jungle film. Directed
by Umberto "Cannibal Ferox" Lenzi, and featuring the ample assets
of A-list jungle savage beauty Me Me Lai.
On an amazing double bill with HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT
MAY 24-26, MIDNIGHT
(1981, d. Gerald Potterton, 90 min, R, $5) "It's pro-drugs, pro-sex,
pro-hot- chicks-with-their-tops-inadvertently-falling-off. It's in six
rockin', variable-quality animated segments, and makes almost no
sense whatsoever, except for the way every female winds up getting
naked one minute after appearing on screen. This is probably one of
the few films ever in which two stoned aliens accidentally vacuum
into their  Pac-Manesque spaceship an Earthwoman secretary, who
is in turn hit on by  a robot: "I've been programmed to be fully
proficient in sexual activities. Wanna go steady?" The robot
proceeds to promise her a Jewish wedding. At this point, you either
are absolutely desperate to see this movie or are completely turned
off beyond belief, so I'll stop." - Brown University Film Society Review
Ain't It Cool News, The Austin Chronicle, Sapient &
Big Brothers Big Sisters present the Saturday Morning Film Club
MAD MONSTER PARTY
SAT, MAY 26, NOON
(d. Jules Bass, 1967, free admission for kids and accompanying
adults) Mad Monster Party is a fantastic addition to our cultural
landscape. The Jack Davis designed puppets, the Harvey Kurtzman
(Mad Magazine) style satire, the great voices (including the
irreplaceable Boris Karloff) and the surf guitar/spy music/monster
mash soundtrack all combine to make a unique viewing experience,
enjoyable for all ages. Most importantly, this film presents the
greatest assortment of classic monsters in one epic story - Dracula,
The Werewolf, Frankenstein's Monster, The Creature, Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, The Mummy, King Kong, The Invisible Man, The
Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Peter Lorre inspired Igor! Mad
Monster Party was produced by the Rankin/Bass team and features
the stop motion animation featured in better known holiday classics
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
MAY 30 - MIDNIGHT
IT HAPPENED IN HOLLYWOOD
A few of you lucky souls may have seen the trailer for this classic
grindhouse title at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 2000; you know what to
expect. For the rest, this is a holy grail title of sexploitation and not
for whimps. Come with an open mind and we will blow you away.
THE RIVER'S EDGE
MAY 31-JUNE 2 MIDNIGHT
(d. Tim Hunter, 1986, $5) The general plot is straightforward -
stoner guy kills stoner girlfriend, leaves her body by the river, and
brags to all of his stoner buds - but there are darker undercurrents
that stir up thoughts about the disillusionment of youth, the
devaluation of women, and the death of Sixties idealism. Director
Hunter is a whiz at pacing and keeps the plot rolling while he
further muddies the waters with his intriguing montages. You can't
help but get sucked into the world of these characters, whose lives
are orchestrated by Crispin Glover's Layne, who sounds like Perry
Farrell and lives on a steady diet of speed and weed. Daniel
Roebuck is wonderfully creepy as Samson, the slow-eyed and
slow-witted killer. As painful as it is to admit, Keanu Reeves, young
enough to have the barest traces of peach-fuzz on his upper lip,
gives a solid performance, proving once again that he plays
burn-outs very, very well. Of course, Dennis Hopper's Feck is like
Dennis Hopper's anything else - spacey, edgy, and odd.
FRI
JUNE 1
Vulcan Video and the Austin Chronicle present:
ZU WARRIORS OF MAGIC MOUNTAIN
JUNE 3 6:00 & 8:45
(d. Tsui Hark, 1983, $6.50, $4.50 student) The Alamo proudly
welcomes the grandaddy of all Hong Kong
costume/kung-fu/swordfighting epics! After graduating from UT
Tsui Hark promptly returned to his native HK to make a series of
period piece action flicks. Of these, Zu easily surpasses all in form
and content. Zu represents a marriage of groundbreaking special
effects and ingenious HK stuntwork. Starring a slew of top HK
actors and actresses in top form (Sammo Hung, Adam Cheng,
Bridgette Linn, and returning Alamo favorite, Yuen Biao to name a
few), whizzing, flipping, and jumping all over the screen!
JUNE 6 - MIDNIGHT
BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
(d. Dario Argento, 1970, 96 min, free admission) Sam Dalmas (Tony
Musante) is an American reporter living in Rome who witnesses
what appears to be a murder. Trapped by a glass wall, he can't
intervene, but does manage to scare off the killer. Wounded, the
victim survives, and Dalmas's curiosity drives him to look further
into the story, but he soon finds himself and his girlfriend in
jeopardy and stalked by the would-be murderer. Director Dario
Argento's debut film is a remarkable work, more restrained than
many of his later films. Based on an obscure l950s pulp novel, Bird
draws heavily on Hitchcock, as well as on American novelists such
as Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich.
TOXIC AVENGER - THE DIRECTOR'S CUT
JUNE 7-9, MIDNIGHT
(1985, d. Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman, $5) "As a child I loved
to stay up late and watch USA Up All Night This allowed me to
sample pretty much every major Troma movie, and I discovered
the meaning of the phrase "guilty pleasure". As I got older I stayed
away from Troma, as their movies radiated the kind of feeling you
get from wearing a shoddy Halloween mask too long and getting
nauseous inhaling the cheap rubber fumes. But after sampling the
delightful Tromeo & Juliet I decided to return to my roots and check
out the directors edition of the classic Toxic Avenger. While I was
right in remembering the films as the guiltiest of pleasures, the
cheap charm of the film was undeniable, and there was a ton of
gore in the movie that I never saw on T.V. Arms are severed, guts
are ripped out, seeing-eye dogs are shot, and children's heads are
crushed- and it all looks pretty good! You really can't bad-mouth
a movie that has its hero stuff a little old lady in a washing
machine. If you're a gore fan with a high thresh hold for bad taste,
then give the Toxic Avenger another shot- I did, and I'm a better
person for it. I think." - IMDB
FRI
JUNE 8
JUNE 13- MIDNIGHT
CRITTERS
(1986, d. Stephen Herek, 82 min, R, free admission) Bounty hunters
from outer space track down furballs with a taste for flesh that are
terrorizing a small town. Great low-budgeter that's funny and
frantic stuff. An absolute gem. Followed by three sequels. Hell,
even Roger Ebert liked it, give it a shot.
JUNE 14-16, MIDNIGHT
(d. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1989, 123 min., $5) "Santa Sangre is a
throwback to the golden age, to the days when filmmakers had bold
individual visions and were not timidly trying to duplicate the
latest mass-market formulas. This is a movie like none I have seen
before, a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision
between Freud and Fellini. It contains blood and glory, saints and
circuses, and unspeakable secrets of the night. And it is all wrapped
up in a flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery, with
Alejandro Jodorowsky as the ringmaster.
When I go to the movies, one of my strongest desires is to be shown
something new. I want to go to new places, meet new people, have
new experiences. When I see Hollywood formulas mindlessly
repeated, a little something dies inside of me: I have lost two hours
to boors who insist on telling me stories I have heard before.
Jodorowsky is not boring. The privilege of making a film is too
precious to him for him to want to make a conventional one. It has
been 18 years since his last work, and all of that time the frustration
and inspiration must have been building. Now comes this release,
in a rush of energy and creative joy." - Roger Ebert, Chicago SunTimes
FRI
JUNE 15
JUNE 20- MIDNIGHT
KILL OR BE KILLED
(d. Ivan Hall, 1980, free admission) Karate champions from across
the globe lock limbs in a no-holds-barred fighting contest in a
secret N ambian desert fortress. A psychotic, exiled Nazi kung fu
coach and his kung fu dwarf sidekick planned the competition to
seek revenge against his Japanese counterpart who bested him in a
tournament during World War 2.
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
JUNE 21-23, MIDNIGHT
(1990, d. Steve Barron, $5) A glass jar with four baby turtles falls
into the sewer and shatters, dousing these lovable orphan
amphibians in super-potent radioactive ooze. A wandering
Japanese rat named Splinter finds the mutated turtles and raises
them in the kung fu tradition of his former master, thus creating the
ultimate crime-fighting quartet: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The turtle suits were Jim Henson's last creative effort before his
death in 1990.
FRI
JUNE 22
JUNE 27- MIDNIGHT
KILL AND KILL AGAIN
(1981, d. Ivan Hall, free admission) Steve Chase, secret kung-fu
agent for hire from Kill or Be Killed, is contracted by Kandy Kane,
daughter of a famous scientist who has created an alternate fuel
source from potato extract. Dr. Kane has been kidnapped by the evil
kung-fu cult leader "Marduk" who has discovered that all humans
who ingest the potato fuel become brainwashed kung-fu zombies
who obey only him. Steve gathers a rag-tag group of warriors (most
of whom appear to be homeless alcoholics) to help him defeat
Marduk: There's "Gypsy Billy" (the street brawler), "The Fly" (a
zen-like white guy who talks in Confucius-speak), "Gorilla" (the
huge black guy who can pick up a full grown man with each hand),
and "Hot Dog" (the out of shape but psychotic "A-Team Murdock"
guy). Please don't pass up the opportunity to check out this flick.
HAIL TO THE KING BABY!
BRUCE CAMPBELL WEEKEND
JUNE 28-30
The man, the myth, the zombie killing LEGEND, Bruce Campbell,
returns to the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in a blaze of glory. We
will be premiering his new documentary film Fanalysis, which
turns the tables on the fanboy community and examines the
phenomenon of fandom from the eyes of the star. Bruce will also
introduce screenings of Evil Dead 2 and be signing copies of his
brand new book: If Chins Could Kill, Confessions of a B-Movie
Actor. Check www.drafthouse.com for details and ticket
information.
SAT
JUNE 30
JUNE 30, 12:00 NOON
(d. Roger Corman, 1963, 86 min, G, free admission for kids and
accompanying adults) Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and
a very young Jack Nicholson team up with director Roger Corman
and composer Les Baxter to create the quirkiest, funniest Edgar
Allen Poe send-up ever created. Although the sets are creepy, the
on-screen action is wacky and fun for all ages, the cinematic
equivalent of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion.