Chuck Walton, editor-in-chief of the movie-ticketing website Fandango, is a man on a mission. At the point I met up with him last week, Walton garnered strength from the knowledge that his goal was, finally, in sight. The mission? One hundred movies in 100 days. It was Friday, Walton was in Austin, and he was on day 92.
His task has sent him on a scramble across the country; fortunately, his mission did not require him to visit 100 cities as well. Despite the rigors of his movie-a-day marathon, Austin turned out to be the kind of city that forced him to up his movie quotient: In his two days in Austin, Walton visited three theatres and saw six movies. His daily blog begins its day 93 post with the following entry: “I’m at Austin International Airport waiting for a flight home to Denver. The last time I went to bed was over 32 hours ago. I just spent 10 hours in a movie theater. As soon as I land in Colorado, I’m headed straight back into a movie theater for 2.5 more hours. I feel great.”
While in Austin, Walton visited the Regal Arbor Cinema at Great Hills to see the documentary Countdown to Zero, the Alamo Drafthouse South to see Middle Men, and the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz to attend last Friday’s all-night, four-movie cinemapocalypse (including new release The Expendables and older action films Die Hard, Demolition Man, and I Come in Peace). Wildly different kinds of moviegoing experiences, but Walton was thrilled with them all. “At the beginning [of the tour] I was really looking forward to it because I’m such a huge movie fan,” he says. “We’ve gone to all different kinds of venues: We saw a movie at a cemetery, a drive-in – thankfully there are some left – and we’ve been to festivals and outdoor screenings across the country. The idea was to get people excited about summer movies. I know the big movies have been lackluster, but there are so many good independent films that have come out this summer.”
Walton’s mission reaches day 100 this weekend. Afterward, he intends to rank the places and venues he attended. Judging from the following quote, I wouldn’t be surprised to see his time in Austin leading his hit parade. In Austin, he observes: “You get the same passion for movies, but you don’t get all the other stuff that comes with the Hollywood thing, everyone trying to work an angle. Here, they’re really doing it because they love it.”
You can read Chuck Walton’s tour blog at www.fandango.com/movieblog/hundreddays.
This article appears in August 13 • 2010.
