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Category: Life
MySpace has officially had an impact on my life. It's weird to say, that a website has not only given me something to do not only on the internet, but in real life also. But I digress...
Last night MySpace threw 25 early screenings of the upcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Each state had a seperate screening. For the unfamiliar, Borat is one of three characters from UK-based comedian Sacha Cohen, who's hit show, "Da Ali G Show," was exported from his country to ours. Although the Borat character recieved one sketch per episode he quickly became the favorite with satirical real life interviews that entertained while showing a racist, homophobic, and very anti-semitic underbelly across the country through his racist, homophobic, and very anti-semitic character from the "glorious nation" of Kazakhstan. It was only a matter of time before the movie studios came knocking.
Well, the film is done now and is getting ready for its November release. It made a big impact at the Toronto Film Festival. Sacha Cohen as Borat arrived in very Borat form... riding in a wodden cart with a donkey, as the cart itself was pulled by six women.
After the movie took over the cold north, its now come here and MySpace helped to create some early buzz by holding the screenings. I was more than down for this. Heck, they weren't even charging anything! The doors opened at 9:00 (though they pushed it back to 9:30) and the movie started at 10:00 (pushed to 10:30). Me and my friends knew to arrive early to wait along side of other Borat frea... ahem, fans. There were defenitely some characters though. A mid-20's couple arrived wearing nicely home-made t-shirts saying "Plow Experience." Behind us in line a couple spots back was a man who looked like he was alone, had one arm crutch and was reading a "Blade" comic book. My favorite though, was the man 3 spots ahead of us openly smoking weed and drinking beers with his friends. I swear, sometimes I think that I don't take Philly for granted enough. If beards could talk, his would say "Daddy's dissapointment." This started a dabate between my two friends, each of which have polar opposite opinions about the ever-popular plant, which is a good thing because nothing eats up time like a good weed debacle, and we had plenty to spare. Later my one anti-pot friend had had enough from the smell and yelled at them a little and they stopped... for a while. During that while me and my other friend killed some more time by walking back to the car and chugging what few, warm miller lights I had in my trunk and picking up a soda for my friend still in line and a piece of pizza for myself. It only cost $1.50 and was really good. My friends baulked at my positive comments and reminded me that I was eating Philly pizza. Well said.
Finally, thirty minutes after said time, the doors opened. I had sneaked to the front to check out the scene when this happened, and in pure a-hole fashion I speed walked down the line yelling "We're going in!" which was met with scattered applause. After all this time I was hyped up enough to be an idiot and not apologize.
Security was also unapologetic with their fussy demands and grim attitudes. The way they were acting led some people to think that Borat himself was there. They yelled to turn all cellphones off and if they were set on vibrate we'd be thrown out. Nobody was checking them and there were no metal detectors (it is a movie theater after all, even if it is Philly) so how would they know? Still, after over three hours, we weren't taking any chances, despite my urge to do a podcast in the center of the audience.
Inside the theater our first stop was a small "MySpace" table. They collected our "tickets," by which I mean a printout of our MySpace profiles with Borat along with Black Carpet Screenings in our Top 8. I managed to grab one of what few small Borat pins they had to give away. Hey, why not? Finally, to secure my status of being one of the privalaged, I was given a paper hand bracelet which was put on me by a very attractive asian girl working the event. She was also taking pictures earlier from the line, one of which I posed for (I blame the miller lite).
Hooray! The theater is just one escalator away. We entered quickly and lucky us, on the right side of the theater there was a group of seats in the 2nd back row (my 2nd favorite row). They were even near the center too, I was beginning to feel spoiled. Just as soon as the three of us sat down, two of us had to get up and go to the bathroom (again, miller lite). The theater filled up quickly but not to the maximum as I had expected. There were defenitely more than two hundred and eighty people in line. Had they turned away people early? Call me a sadist, but I would've loved to see their faces. To imagine that people would show up an hour early and still think they were getting in is practically an insult to the people in the front who were there for no less than six hours.
After a brief intro from a man working promotions saying "thank you" and other things nobody cared about, the theater darkened and the movie began to much applause. Well surprise surprise, a personalized message from Borat to all of his MySpace friends. He apologized for not being able to join us in person, his reason being that he is "In Kazakhstan on charges of sex crime." But don't worry, because he says that he has proof that it was the ox that started the flirting. Oh, Borat.
Now I won't spoil anything on the movie, and I suggest that you not read the reviews because they most likely will hint you in on several scenes. But I will say this - I have never seen an audience laugh so hard within the first five minutes of a movie in my entire life, no kidding. This wasn't just freebie, "we're fans of Borat so we'll laugh at anything he says" kind of laughter, but genuine laughter. I was right along with them, and it kept up for the entire eighty-two minute running time. The movie was insane and offensive in the best possible way, mixing Borat's improv interviews with scripted events and dare I say it... acting. When the movie is released and everyone gets to see it, I guarantee the reaction will be the same in every theater. "Jagshemash" will be the substitute word of choice for "hello" for several weeks, and the movie will go down in history as one of the funniest of all time. Really. Better than 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman, Old School, etc.
That said, there was one weak point about the experience. For about two minutes in the middle the audio system crapped out and the words were choppy and unintelligable. This was quickly met with boos and some smart-ass remarks. "Someone get Tom to fix this!" and "This never happens at Friendster screenings!"
When the movie ended, it was interesting to watch the rest of the audience leave because they seemed physically exhausted. Not from the wait in line, but from actual laughter. Honestly, when's the last time you can say that about any audience ever?
Overall it was a great night. On the fourty-five minute ride home we talked about every scene we could think of and talked about seeing it again when it comes out in November. It was the best time I ever had at a theater. Yes, even more than my beloved, "Snakes on a Plane." The only thing that sucks is that nobody is going to believe me about how funny this movie is until it comes out, relegating me to "fanboy" status. Don't get me wrong, I am... but I only got to that point after the movie. So until November, when you read this again and appreciate it ten fold... Chanqui!
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