Last night I went to see a screening of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the party warehouse spot Villain. I had so much shit to do and I almost blew it off, but I had told the Village Voice I would photograph it for them and the event looked like it would be pretty fun. Thank god I went; It was probably best event I have been to in months.

TMNT was pretty much my favorite movie as a kid. It came out when I was 9 and it was the most excited I was about any movie ever. To this day I remember exactly where I was when I first saw the trailer. It made that much of an impact on me.

BBQ Films hosted the event and all they do is create amazing pop up movie events where they bring you inside the movie. Last night they turned Villain into the Foot Clan headquarters and pitched the events as a foot clan try out. If you haven’t seen the movie, the evil Shredder recruits his army by going after troubled New York youths and offers them a Pleasure Island style headquarters equipped with arcade machines, skate ramps and even free cigarettes! At Villain there were no cigarettes but there were video games, skateboarding, plus free pizza and beer! There was a video game room upstairs where you could play the Super Nintendo version of TMNT as well as the new video game. They also had free pop corn, breakdancing and you got a foot clan headband when you walked in. They even had the Turtles leader Splinter chained up in a corner just like in the movie! It was pretty epic.

Before the movie started BBQ Films tried to introduce the film but were rudely interrupted by motherfucking Shredder! He came out to the hoots and hollers of the wanna be Foot Clan audience members. Reenacting a scene from the movie, one audience member was granted an opportunity to join the Foot and of course she did so with great honor before the movie finally started.

Halfway through the film Turtle pal and hockey fan Casey Jones broke into Villain and rescued Splinter while the Foot Clan were distracted by the movie. Before they could escape Shredder showed up with his team of Foot Clan and confronted Casey Jones. There was only one way to settle this… a break dance battle! Several 80’s street toughs represented Casey Jones and Splinter and break battled the hip hop dancing foot clan. Boogaloo ensued and it was looking like the good guys were in trouble. Just then the actual Ninja Turtles broke in and saved the day. The tides were turned and Shredder limped off defeated. The movie would continue!

Just when you thought shit couldn’t get any more awesome, when the final credits to the film started and the classic anthem “T.U.R.T.L.E Power” hit, Golden Voice himself of Partners in Kryme showed up and started singing his hit over the credits. He was followed by the Turtles and Casey Jones and even Shredder joined in on the dance party. After performing the greatest movie theme song of the early 90’s (Yeah you heard me right Hammer!) , he played a BRAND NEW Turtles song called “Rock The Half Shell”. It was fucking incredible. I bet it must have been awesome for him to get to play that song along side a bunch of Mutant Ninja Turtles (who I am pretty sure are no longer teenagers) in front of a crowd full of TMNT fans dressed up as foot clan thugs.

After the show was over the dance party continued and I got to tell Golden Voice about how I lost the talent show in the third grade to two kids who rapped Turtle Power. He thought it was hilarious, but what I didn’t tell him was that we both actually lost to a fucking ballerina. Bullshit. They came in 2nd though and me and Michael Grunenberger had to settle for 3rd for our rendition of the McDonalds menu song.

In conclusion, that shit was awesome. The movie held up too. It looks bad ass. Makes you wish CGI wasn’t a thing. TMNT is so dark and creepy and the costumes are amazing. It’s still really funny (although probably in more of an ironic way than it was in 1990) and it was a really great way to watch a movie. This was really the most fun I have had at a party in ages. Shout out to BBQ Films and Flavorpill and everyone else who worked on this event. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Click here for some truly bodacious photos from the Foot Clan Tryout’s an Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles screening at Villain. Cowabunga dudes!

Ps. For bonus credit, watch the mumble core/ TMNT parody my little brother directed!

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