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What I’m trying to say is that I couldn’t make it to this show. It’s only the second Secret Screening I’ve missed since I started going in 2014. From what I’m seeing on Facebook, it was some fine killer bear action. Also, this selection was surely inspired by the new movie Cocaine Bear, which came out the previous weekend. A little demon possession for a chilly winter night. As of November 2021, The AGFA Secret Screening is just The Secret Screening.
Meet the man who programs those wild movies at…
Gags in the corners of the frame. Warzones of overlapping dialogue. A blizzard of jokes, many of which are presented so dryly that it’s hard to imagine the Porky’s audience getting into it back in the day, but in 2022 I was fascinated. Bonus points for being a perfect, sunny selection for June. More bonus points for being the return of 35mm to the show.
Locations
Let’s also note that this was the Secret Screening’s fourth digital presentation in a row. Hope their film projector isn’t broken. A spokesperson says that the updates will include luxury recliner seating throughout every auditorium, new carpet and wallpaper, and updating decor with new vintage posters in the lobby and hallways. The theater will remain open during the renovations with no impact on moviegoers as reseating auditoriums will be staggered.
North Carolina
So this one, Pyun’s biggest hit, won over the room right away. It’s one of those movies that demonstrates how the sword & sandal genre peaked in the 80s. It was the right time for shirtless warriors with triple-bladed swords fighting evil wizards to a booming orchestral score. And am I right to doubt that today’s digital effects could ever out-charm this film’s practical low-budget fantasy world? I’m of the generation that discovered this Mexican kiddie flick oddity on Mystery Science Theater 3000 about a hundred years ago.
Dear Abby: My husband doesn’t know I have a secret apartment
I like to walk in with no expectations. Part of the Secret Screening’s greatness is that it encourages open-mindedness. It plays to a trait that real film freaks have, which is to be up for anything. It’s a great way to approach the offbeat Freebie and The Bean.
Yet, his involvement with Alamo extends much further back, having started out as a volunteer there and then venturing through a number of paid positions before moving into national marketing. He moved from Austin, Texas, (where Alamo is headquartered) to the Bay Area in 2019. I’d never even heard of this Michael Ritchie-directed film before, but now I’ll be thinking about it for awhile. Lee Marvin is a Chicago tough guy hired by local mobsters to collect a debt from a super-slimy Gene Hackman, a Kansas fatcat who owns a slaughterhouse and runs a prostitution side hustle that scouts its “talent” from an orphanage.
Drafthouse Films
In 2006, due to rising rent in downtown Austin, theater owners took steps to hand the theater over to a non-profit group called the "Heroes of the Alamo" foundation, operating the theater as a cultural arts center. However, with the historic Ritz Theater on 6th Street offered as an alternative location, the original Alamo was closed. The final event at the original site consisted of a special triple-feature event on the evening of June 27, 2007. The final movie shown was Night Warning, with star Susan Tyrrell attending. After the movie, audience members were allowed to disassemble their seats and take them home as souvenirs of the theater.
On the surface, it lays down the blueprint for all “buddy cop” movies. It’s got the detective partners who bicker like an old married couple. It’s got the superior officer who has to chew out their asses over their loose cannon tactics.
“Batman,” “Do the Right Thing,” “UHF,” “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” “Tie Me Up! Recently we had the chance to chat with Isgar about his love for film and his programming work at Alamo (drafthouse.com). Some of the biggest country stars in the world will take the stage at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards, set to take place at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco on Thursday, May 16. In 2010, after the return of former co-founder Tim League as CEO, the company launched Drafthouse Films, a film distribution company named after, and inspired by, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. In June 2017, the current largest Alamo opened in Springfield, Missouri with 14 screens seating 1,050 people.
James Wallace went with a crowd-pleaser. He’d been wanting to show this ultra-80s cult classic for awhile, he claimed, preferably with star Bill Allen in attendance. June 26 was the night when all of that happened.
Tarrant County's first Alamo Drafthouse movie theater opens in April - The Dallas Morning News
Tarrant County's first Alamo Drafthouse movie theater opens in April.
Posted: Wed, 17 Apr 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The blood ‘n ‘guts make that clear (yes, we saw the “gore” cut, the intended cut, via Vinegar Syndrome’s sparkling restoration). Host James Wallace talked about how he sees this as a perfect Secret Screening movie. It gives you weirdness in every scene, along with spilled intestines, spurting blood, and a brain yanked straight out of a skull, but it’s somehow also a crowd-pleaser that leaves you feeling good. I’m glad that I hadn’t seen it before. This was the ideal first trip.
It was a dream come true. Since 2022, Isgar has held the film programmer gig for the theater chain, which also boasts a location in Los Angeles. (The chain is reportedly exploring sale opportunities.) In that position, he helps to oversee nationwide repertory and indie bookings.
It’s got comedy and action served up together like a cheeseburger and fries. In the 1980s, this was a reliable commercial formula, but in 1974, things were a shade more cynical. Director Richard Rush takes no obvious moral stance. Our leads, James Caan and Alan Arkin, are charmers for sure, but Rush doesn’t lay on any sledgehammer music cues to tell us what to think while these guys abuse their power on their mission to take down a criminal fatcat. Also, we never see the villain do something heinous on screen so that we hate him. What we’re left to do is wonder if all of this destruction (crashed cars galore, mayhem that barges into peoples’ homes and workplaces) is REALLY worth it.
The answer is yes, because it’s funny and this is just a movie, but Rush doesn’t put on the hard sell. If you think that these characters are ALL dirtbags, he seems to be fine with that. Let’s also mention that James Wallace framed this selection as a tribute to the late James Caan and that the 35mm print was a knockout, full of analog warmth and lively color with no weird splices or rough patches. My ability to order a beer from my seat was the only reminder I had that I wasn’t in 1974. I never expected Robert Altman to show up in the Secret Screening, but on this hot Texas night, he did and it was perfect.
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