Ready to go back to 1989? The Alamo Drafthouse is.
To celebrate that very pivotal year of cinema, which included (among other things) Tim Burton’s “Batman,” Steven Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” Steven Soderbergh’s “sex, lies and videotape” and Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy,” the Austin, Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse Cinema will be introducing a yearlong program that includes special menu items and merchandise, along with a screening series of your favorite turn-of-the-decade gems.
“I was six years old in the summer of 1989, and can still remember my parents teasing me that tickets to ‘Batman’ might be sold out and that we might have to see ‘Last Crusade’ again instead. Tough life for a kid,” says John Smith, Senior Film Programmer at Alamo Drafthouse, in an official statement. “Thirty-five years later, the films of 1989 are still selling out Alamo Drafthouse screenings, and it’s an honor to share these films with a new generation.”
Tickets for the Time Capsule 1989 program are now on sale, with events including Movie Party celebrations of Weird Al’s “UHF” and John Hughes’ supremely underrated “Uncle Buck,” brunch screenings of “Troop Beverly Hills,” “Teen Witch” and “Steel Magnolias” and – if you’re looking for something with a little more edge – screenings of Joe Dante’s “The ‘Burbs,” Nicolas Cage in “Vampire’s Kiss” and the original “Pet Semetary,” a movie that, when it appeared on cable, scared me to death.
Some of the new menu items include a “Henry Dog,” a hot dog inspired by Indiana’s dad in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade;” “Dalton’s Choice,” a nice non-alcoholic drink in honor of “Road House’s” iconic cooler (played by Patrick Swayze); and the “Pizza of the Future,” with half pepperoni, half green bell pepper, as seen in “Back to the Future Part II” (and no futuristic hydration process needed).
There’s also a collectible pint glass, designed by collectible pint glass created by Chris Bilheimer, the acclaimed artist behind legendary album designs for Neutral Milk Hotel, R.E.M., and Green Day.
This sounds like the perfect cinematic time machine, for a year some of us remember and all of us miss dearly.
Leave a Reply