The Alamo Presents “Serenity” at The Alamo.

Last night we hit our second “Serenity” premiere in as many nights, details mentioned a few posts back. We drove 45 minutes out into Austin hill country to the ranch where they constructed the sets for the movie “The Alamo”. This was one of The Alamo Drafthouse’s famous “Rolling Road Shows”. We came equipped as true geeks with our Jayne hats that Jess had knitted.
In the middle of a courtyard of a the replica of an old Spanish fort stood a huge inflatable screen. They had Chinese take-out snacks as their themed meal (they often do themed meals). Before the movie they showed an Alamo Drafthouse produced short called “How To Swear in Chinese 101”, where an older Chinese man (a relative of one of the Alamo’s managers, who was also emceeing the night) taught us how to say things such as “you stupid little prick”, “let loose a big stinky fart” and of course the obligatory “Fuck you!”.
they then brought out the night’s guests, Jewel Staite and Summer Glau (two of the movie’s stars) to introduce the movie.
The second viewing solidified that this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It is in my list of all time favorites. As intense as it was the first time, there were certain parts that were even more intense the second time. This weekend is very important for this film. See it. See it twice. Make your friends see it. Take a stranger to see it.
After the movie Jewel and Summer did a Q&A session, which was, naturally, very cool. My favorite story was when they were talking about an inside joke they had. The cast had all been watching a potential promo for the movie, with the classic movie trailer guy’s voice naming the stars, except that he mangle about three of their names, so Nathan Fillion started imitating the movie trailer guy and mispronouncing every name in the cast in amusing ways. I also got to ask them a question which can not be detailed here due to spoileryness.
I wish I could adequately express the coolness that is The Alamo Drafthouse, but it’s really something that must be experienced.
On a side note here, I know we constantly sing the praises of The Alamo Drafthouse, and shall continue to do so, but I can’t tell you how many times that Jess and I think “Will and Annika would love this,” about some event or homemade Alamo preview they show beforehand. One that struck me in particular was this one. Keep in mind, we’re moving into our condo at the end of November so we’ll have room for guests.
They always have custom made funny little clips from movies or semi-celebrities in clips about not talking during the movie. Their latest one is to show the clip from “Firefly” where book tells Mal that if he takes advantage of someone he’ll go to a very special level of hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theatre. They all end with a text tag line on the screen, in this case something like “Don’t talk during the movie or you will go to a very special level of hell with only child molesters for company.”
On another side note: the clientele at the Alamo Drafthouse all seem to be a sort of “kindred spirits”. The energy always seems so positive. At the screening people picked up after themselves, and surprisingly when I used one of the porta potties at the very end of the night, it was still in good enough shape that I would have actually taken a seat had I needed to. I think that says a lot about the crowd.