A Sneak Peek Of The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Opening Soon In Raleigh

Today I was among a group of local media folks who were invited to check out the new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, which is opening later this month on New Bern Avenue, in Raleigh. 

The announcement on the invite succinctly stated, “Alamo has a rabid cult following within the film community and Raleigh locals campaigned for years for this to be the first NC location (the 29th for the Austin, TX based company).”

Being a big film fan, and film theater fan, I’ve been very aware of the Alamo’s reputation for a long time so I was really looking forward to seeing the 11-screen complex, and it didn’t disappoint. 

Check out some pictures (click on them for larger images):

A long bar with over 40 local draft beers on tap!

Movie soundtracks on vinyl! 

Big ass replicas of VHS tape covers!

Cool VHS tape tables that play VHS tapes!

The VHS tape imagery highlights the most surprising feature of this Alamo location: Video Vortex, a video store that will rent DVDs, Blu-rays, and rare VHS titles, many of which have never made the transfer to DVD. If you don’t have a VCR, or DVD or Blu ray player, they’ll rent that to you too. And here’s the kicker: the rentals are free. 

Here’s Video Vortex manager Josh Schafer showing off some of the Alamo’s enormous VHS collection:

And here’s some of the Alamo’s vast inventory of DVDs and Blu rays (the horror section to be exact):

I chatted with Alamo founder/CEO Tim League about the idea of offering free movie rentals, and he said it was an experimental concept, and that there will still be late fees as “half the revenue of a video store is late fees.” 

League went on to say that the video store is a “Re-imagining of it. We’ve got the retail and the bar - I'm thinking that this would be a cool place where you’d just want to hang out - you're surrounded by movies, we've got movie fans coming in and out so maybe you'd make an impulse buy or rent.” 

We also got a treat in seeing the first by invite presentation of this Alamo's 35 mm system via a vintage trailer for SECRET OF MAGIC ISLAND, which League said was one of his all-time favorite trailers.

So that was my first visit of what I bet will be many to the Raleigh's new venue/hang out spot, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Thanks to the fine people who invited me to see it, and were so nice to meet and chat with. Oh, and the food they served us was great too. Here's a picture of some of it:

As to when exactly the theater is opening, nobody specified a date but I was told that they will be up and running when AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR comes out on April 26.

More later...

Every Movie I’ve Ever Seen Ranked (You Won’t Believe What’s #4081!)

Sorry for the clickbaitastic headline, and as you might’ve guessed I’m not going to really rank every movie I’ve ever seen (but if you’re wondering what #4081 is – it’s John Schlesinger’s PACIFIC HEIGHTS, pictured above, which is a solid #4081). I just wanted to call out those ever so prevalent pop culture lists that rank every Tarantino movie, or Beatles song, or Seinfeld episode from worst to best. Like these*: 

All 49 Marvel Movies Ranked, Including ‘Black Panther’ 

Every Best Picture Oscar Winner, Ranked: How All 90 Movies Stack Up 

Every James Bond Movie Ranked from Worst to Best (also The Best James Bond Actors, Ranked, Ranking: James Bond Theme Songs From Worst to Best, etc) 

All X-Files Episodes, Ranked Best to Worst (this one is actually from a site called ranker.com)The Complete Works: Ranking All 374 Rolling Stones Songs 

* I’m not linking to any of these, so you are are your own finding these if you want.

Now, I’m not against lists - I’ve posted plenty of them on this blog - I just don’t like it where there’s dozens and dozens of entries of whatever pop culture thing as they aren’t very useful. I mean, if you rank the Beatles’ studio albums, there’s only like a dozen of them so somebody approaching their catalog might benefit from the recommendations of “Revolver” or “Sgt. Pepper” or whatever records are high on the list, but what good does it do anybody to know that Vulture.com thinks that “Rocky Raccoon” from “The While Album” is #166 out of #213? 

Now, I know some people like these lists, and find them fun enough to share and argue about, etc. but I usually skip them. The ones I do click on, I just skim them quickly and move on. I find Top 10 lists, or 20 at the most, to be more useful. 

The lists I get most annoyed by are the ones that basically say ‘hey, that thing you like sucks’ like these: 

12 Movies You Probably Love That Are Overrated, According To Reddit 

15 Overrated Movies Everyone Pretends To Love 

5 Recent Movies That Got Way More Praise Than They Deserved 

I particularly don’t like the word “overrated” because to me it means: I hate this thing that everyone likes, and they’re wrong (underrated being the obvious opposite: I love this thing that everyone hates, and they’re wrong). 

Yeah, I know that the words “overrated” and “underrated” are ubiquitous in our culture, and aren’t going away any time soon, but I don’t use them on my blog because I find them to be meaningless.

One strong case against them is that President Trump uses the word “overrated” a lot – he’s used it to insult former President Barack Obama (no surprise there), Meryl Streep, Jerry Seinfeld, Megyn Kelley, the musical Hamilton, and politicians in general (again, no surprise). I don’t think he’s ever said that anything or anyone is “underrated,” because he probably doesn’t know that word. 

Lately, I have been trying to not be on social media too much as I get really annoyed by these things, and stuff like long lists that have slideshows so they can fit in more ads, but I’m not going to get started on those. 

This concludes my rant. Stay tuned for coverage of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival that kicks off this Thursday, April 5, and for reviews of upcoming films like Wes Anderson’s * ISLE OF DOGS, and the roster of highly anticipated summer films around the corner. 

* A filmmaker who is often considered overrated.

More later…

Harrison Ford To Reprise Yet Another Iconic Role In FALFA: AN AMERICAN GRAFFITI STORY

After reprising his iconic roles as Han Solo in the STAR WARS series in 2015, Rick Deckard in the BLADE RUNNER franchise last year, and following news that he’ll don the Fedora for a fifth INDIANA JONES film in 2019, and another turn as CIA agent Jack Ryan for an upcoming series for Netflix later that year, Harrison Ford is set to resurrect another classic character in the newly announced FALFA: AN AMERICAN GRAFFITI STORY, set for summer 2020. 

Ford previously portrayed the cocky street racer, Bob Falfa, in George Lucas’ seminal early-‘60s-set 1973 comedy AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Bill L. Norton’s 1979 follow-up MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI, in which we learn that Falfa became a hippy-hating San Francisco cop in the late ‘60s; and in the hit 2016 reboot, Darren Aronofsky’s STILL MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITI, which caught up with most of the original cast in a scenario set around the events of 9/11. 

But in the first stand alone film in the rebooted series, FALFA: AN AMERICAN GRAFFITI STORY, the focus is on the elder Falfa’s life as a cranky curmudgeon who learns to love life again in a tale that its director Denis Villeneuve describes as a “mixture of ‘A Christmas Story’ crossed with GRAN TORINO.”

AMERICAN GRAFFITI regulars Candy Clark, Richard Dreyfuss, Charles Martin Smith, Bo Hopkins, and Cindy Williams are in talks to be included in cameo roles, and although Ron Howard’s character, Steve Bolander, died in the 2016 AMERICAN GRAFFITI reboot, there are rumors that he may still appear in poignant flashbacks, or at least as narrator a la Arrested Development.

At a panel for BLADE RUNNER 2049 at Comic Con last year, Ford was asked by a fan if he planned to reboot every single franchise that he’s ever starred in. Ford swiftly answered, “You bet your ass!” Going by this new announcement that Falfa will live to race another day, the 75-year old actor apparently wasn’t just having a laugh.

More later...