Average Jane Goes Out On the Town

For once, I didn't have anything planned last night, so my husband arranged for us to go to dinner and a free movie premiere with a couple we know.

They'd received the movie passes while attending a performance of what they described as "the most awful Journey tribute band ever." Oddly, the name of the film wasn't printed on the passes, but I could tell what it was once I saw the artwork.

The movie was The Rocker, starring Rainn Wilson, a.k.a. Dwight from "The Office." My husband and I had seen the trailer, so we were already looking forward to it.

We noticed a bunch of drumsticks next to the theater door as we walked in, and the PR rep said they were for the movie's MySpace friends. Before the movie started, it was announced that there would be additional free premiere viewing opportunities between now and the opening date of July 30th for MySpace friends and Facebook fans. I thought that was a pretty impressive commitment to social media promotion.

The movie has a great cast that includes Christina Applegate, Jeff Garlin, Howard Hesseman, Jane Lynch and a bunch of young 'uns who are probably very popular with people a couple of generations behind me. There's also a scene with Demetri Martin as a video director that makes me laugh to myself just thinking of it.

If you like rock comedies, you should enjoy this one. It contains some nice homages to This Is Spinal Tap, Almost Famous, That Thing You Do and other notable rock band movies that preceded it.

The only annoying thing about the premiere experience was being required to surrender my cell phone before I entered the theater. I've had that happen at premieres before, but usually there's some kind of claim ticket involved. This time around, I felt lucky to get my phone back at all afterward as members of the audience basically had to pick through the bagged phones and find their own. Bad, bad planning.

Still, I enjoyed the movie and I'd even see it again once it comes out. Or maybe I'll catch another free premiere first, seeing as I'm now connected to it on MySpace and Facebook...

Comments

[Zen Zone Chick]

I would've risked the bad karma and lied and said I didn't have a phone. That's just stupid. You can witness me shutting it off, but that's about as much contact with my phone a stranger will get! Movie sounds great!

[R]

I went to see Journey in Glasgow last Friday and they were awesome! But us Scots don't get a massive pull of live music talent on our shores so maybe we have little to compare! It was very cool to get the soundtrack final scene in the Sopranos last ever episode.

[Mocha]

So glad you liked it! I was hoping someone would review it. Dwight is one of my favorite characters to detest in a really good way.