Austin is Serenity

I have often heard about the Alamo Drafthouse via various web stuff, including Doug Loves Movies podcasts.  So, while I was in Austin, I decided to check it out.  That the movie of the night was a Serenity Quote-Along made the decision much easier and far more delightful.

I had seen Serenity--the movie that provided an ending (of sorts) to the Firefly series--before, but not recently.  I had  very recently re-watched Firefly, so the timing was good.  A quote-along at the Alamo Drafthouse means that you get props and they throw key quotes up on the screen along the way so that the audience can deliver various lines.  The props included pop guns with heaps of ammo and glow sticks (for laser space battles).  The pre-movie instructions were quite good--it was a quote along, not a quote before along or a quote after along.  The host also had fun with the one person in the room that had never seen the movie before.

Even without the quote-along stuff, it would have been a good time.  While waiting for the movie to start, they played a series of videos including interviews with Joss Wheedon, Whedon's anti-Romney ad from 2012 (that Romney would bring on the zombie apocalypse) songs from Dr. Horrible (the folks near me knew all of the words and could sing very, very well), a video with Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris where the latter has a medical problem--dreaming of muppets.

What else?  Well, unlike any other movie theatre, this one had a shelf in front of every seat with a menu.  One would write on a piece of paper what one wants and then ninjas would come by and take one's order and bring back food.  The beer list was quite good but I opted for a Baileys milkshake.  The food looked great, but I was still stuffed from lunch, so I just had the chocolate chip cookie.  Which turned out to be three of them, freshly baked and still quite warm.  So very good. 

Anyhow, it was a great experience.  The Alamo Drafthouse is expanding, so I will look for it in my travels.