Just came home from the Writer's Guild screening of Borat. Because award season is in full swing here in LA (we have four seasons here like everyone else: fire, earthquake, floods and award) after the screening, the movie's writers, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham spoke for about an hour. The talk was filmed and should be an extra on their upcoming DVD release.

I may be among the last people in America to have seen Borat. I was never a huge fan of Da Ali G show. I would laugh then turn it off screaming. But I did watch. I decided to go to Borat with great misgivings. But I went anyway.

So I have mixed opinions about it. Generally I liked it. I laughed a lot. Sometimes I couldn't stop laughing. But then, suddenly, I would find myself repulsed by something I was watching. I generally have a low threshold for embarrassment humor. I tend to turn off the TV when on a sitcom someone is about to do something really stupid. Borat swings back and forth from the hilarious to the hellacious. Fortunately, overall it is more funny than not. But those non moments are truly cringeworthy.

I was sitting next to Steve Mitchell, Mark Evanier and Earl Kress. Mark felt, and I think rightly, that far more of the movie was scripted than they would like us to believe. There are incidents in the film that could only have been scripted, and I'm not talking about the obvious ones. One audience member asked Baron Cohen about the Pamela Anderson scene. he wanted to know if she was in on the joke or not. Interestingly, Baron Cohen didn't answer the question.

The talk afterward was the real fun part. Because it will be on DVD I won't bother to rehash it, but their story about the Crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. - a scene that was cut from the film - was hilarious.

I liked the film though not all of it, but I definitely thought the evening was great. One of the coolest things about living out here and being part of the WGA is going to functions like this. Usually they can only be seen if you were present. It's nice to hear that the talk will be on the DVD. If you look really hard you may even see Earl, Mark Me and Steve.

By the way, Mark just posted his review. You can read it HERE!

Labels: Borat