Movies This Week: Turkey Edition

The big movie in theaters this week, if you're a teenager, is the vampire film Twilight. The movie didn't screen for Austin critics so I can't tell you what I thought. I saw Bolt instead, which has no fangs (in a literal or figurative sense) but is a very cute family movie.

But the movie I want to recommend for this week is JCVD, which opens today at Alamo Ritz. You don't have to be a Jean Claude Van Damme fan to enjoy the film. I'd say it's like Dog Day Afternoon meets Being John Malkovich but that would be entirely wrong. Go see it for yourself. If you see it on Thanksgiving Day, Alamo is offering a turkey dinner special.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, there are fewer special screenings than usual in Austin this week, but here are some of the most interesting:

• The Dobie is showing My Name is Bruce all week long. Check out my review and my interview with Bruce Campbell, who directed the comedy and stars as ... Bruce Campbell. If you can coordinate movie times, this would make a fabulous double-feature with JCVD.
• If Twilight and Let the Right One In have given you a craving for more vampire films, Alamo Ritz can help you out. On Sunday night, you can see The Lost Boys and Near Dark. The theater is also offering Bloody Mary cocktail specials that night.
• On Monday you have to make a decision: Austin Cinematheque is showing Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart, and the Harry Ransom Center is showing the 1947 film The Lost Moment. Austin Cinematheque prides itself on showing 35mm prints, and HRC tends to show DVDs ... but both movies are free.
• Have I ever told you about the time we taught my little brother -- then about four years old -- to sing "I am your singing telegram!" and then make a little gunshot noise and fall over? Which almost makes me want to watch Clue again. On Tuesday night, Alamo Ritz is showing the campy not-quite-classic as part of the recurring "Hey Homo!" series.
• The Paramount invites you to spend Thanksgiving with a big, close family -- the Corleones. The Godfather is screening on Tuesday night and Friday, and in a double-feature with The Godfather, Part II on Saturday and Sunday 11/29-30. The second movie is also screening on Wednesday night. The theater boasts that these are newly restored prints.
• I've mentioned before about the time I survived a "Turkey Marathon" at Alamo on Thanksgiving Day weekend with an all-night lineup of weird movies. One of the films was Blood Freak, about a guy whose drug use turns him into a turkey with a taste for human blood. Alamo is bringing it back on Thanksgiving night as the midnight Terror Thursday selection at the Ritz. If you're in town, you won't want to miss this bizarre film, one of the few Thanksgiving-themed family-unfriendly flicks out there. (Plus, it's free.)
• At SXSW this year, I caught Nerdcore Rising, a documentary about "nerdcore" music that focused on MC Frontalot. My review is here. Alamo Ritz is showing the film on Friday night, with MC Frontalot and director Negin Farsad (shown above at SXSW) in person.