Las Vegas Weekly

Bonding with a Bud

Getting my drink on at beer-embracing Galaxy Theatres

Arriving at the Galaxy Theatres inside the Cannery Casino, I immediately begin looking through the offerings at the concession stand. For once, I’m not looking for Milk Duds or popcorn. I’m looking for beer.

With the premiere of Quantum of Solace, Galaxy is the first movie theater in town to serve beer (although, given the nature of the flick, martinis would probably be more appropriate). And since I’m a film critic as well as a bar columnist, this makes job multi-tasking so much easier for me.

My friend Martin arrives to join me for the 9:30 showing, and with tickets in hand, we ask the usher to direct us to the beer.

“You get it in the back by the two 21-and-over theaters,” he tells us. “But you need tickets for one of those showings.”

Cripes. We exchange our tickets for those to a boozier showtime and decide to kill the wait at Pin-ups, the Cannery’s center bar.

An hour later, we proceed to the end of the hall, where the last two theaters are blocked off by a velvet rope and two security people, who offer to sell us beer. They offer Bud and Bud Light, and we ask for one of each, which are presented to us in metal bottles, which will likely remain cold throughout the film.

There are only about eight people in the theater (I guess word of beer night has yet to spread), and Martin comments that our armrest cupholders were really designed for wider drinks. But we sit down with our beers, and the movie’s soon underway. Then something curious happens. Under the influence of alcohol, it’s hard to make sense of the action scenes, much less the plot. How did Bond win that dogfight? What is this evil organization trying to do?

Wait a second … I haven’t even had any of this beer yet!

Movies and booze are a nice combination, but if you’re planning to see something this lame, you might want to get more than one beer.