Director:
Larry Charles
Cast:
Sacha Baron Cohen .... Borat Sagdiyev
Ken Davitian .... Azamat Bagatov
Luenell .... Luenell
Summary:
Borat's a made-up character done by comedian/genius Sacha Baron Cohen. In this mockumentary, he goes to America from his homeland Kazakhstan to learn the ways of the greatest country in the world to make his own country better. The catch of his act is that the people he interviews/goes on film with don't know that he's a hoax. Which opens the doors for great comedy... on the TV series!
Oh, and he falls in love with Pamela Anderson while watching Baywatch and goes across America in search of her.
Review:
I love Borat, Ali-G and Bruno, all for their own reasons. As a political statement, it goes to show a lot of how one's appearance can change the interviewee's attitude. For Bruno, it shows the complete superficiality of the fashion world. Ali-G is a laugh riot due to his absolute stupidity and most of the high-level officials' reactions and even TOLERANCE to his stupidity, only to be thrown aback by a surprise moment of intelligent clarity. With Borat, we can be amazed at how a stupid, naive foreigner with overall good intentions can get away with breaking even the most offensive American/British taboos, all the while not overtly offending most of the people around him. If he DOES offend, it usually is forgiven, since he doesn't understand our culture that well.
Something happened between the several years he's been on television... to this movie. Some of it is old footage from the series, but MOST of it is fresh material on his tour across America, offending people a little more savagely than I remember on the show (he rarely goes beyond what I consider to be the "slightly offensive" mark into "completely inappropriate" territory on the show). On top of that, 95% of what he does in every scene isn't even FUNNY. I don't think I've wisened up to his act, since I've been watching his show for years. So, it MUST be that this movie just plain sucks.
I laughed twice the whole time I was watching it. My friend next to me fell asleep, and I almost envied him of the relief he was getting from the goings-ons onscreen. Of course the plot is paper-thin. In fact, I'm surprised there was THAT MUCH of a plot to the movie. The shit that was funny was all in the previews, sucking away my chance at laughter while paying my $10.50 to watch the fucking thing.
My only honest-to-God laugh came from a bag being thrown on the ground that had a chicken in it. That was it!
What can I say about this movie other than it really sucked massive donkey balls? Oh, I guess that's it. I got virtually no laughs, found him to go a little beyond the line of offensiveness to the people he's a guest to, and his behavior and the stupid 'comedy' of the storyline itself falls flat on its' face. OK, so BE offensive, that's FINE. But at the same time, please be FUNNY. That's where this comedy failed. It failed to be funny.
I'm a fan of the show, too! So it's a surprise to me.
GRADE: D
Reviewed: 12/11/06