| BORAT Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan |
 2006 - USADirector: Larry Charles
- Reviewed by Jennifer
I guess I should start by saying that Borat is not my kind of movie. At no point was I intrigued by Sacha Baron Cohen's latest incarnation, and nothing about the film's premise struck me as remotely amusing. I mean, what? He pretends to be a boob from Kazakhstan for the purpose of making a bunch of Americans look like fools? How is that good for anyone? Having said that, I did find myself smiling through most of the movie, and it was slightly more subtle than I expected. After being bombarded by all things Borat for the past several months, I expected him to spend the entire movie talking about "sexytime" and going "Wawaweewa!" Happily, this is not the case, but for me the best bits are either harmless or staged - not the scenes where regular people play off Borat. Borat taking us on a tour of his village? Very funny! Borat unpacking his suitcase in an elevator and saying, "I will not accept a smaller room!"? Hilarious! Borat washing his face in the toilet bowl? Super hilarious. Borat shooing his chicken away and telling it to go on and live its own life? I almost died. All of the above is completely innocuous, but things get dicey when Borat starts engaging real people. Sure it's funny when he pretends to think a man is "retarded" instead of "retired", but when he pretends not to know where to make a #2 at the same dinner party, the situation takes an uncomfortable turn. Imagine your foreign dinner guest returning to the table with a baggie of his own poo. Would you not want to puke in your purse and show him the door? This sort of stunt is vile and mean, and the result is more likely to induce squirming than laughter. And what of the sweet Jewish couple who try to put Borat and Azamat (Ken Davitian) up in their Bed and Breakfast for the night? Borat continues his "Jews are evil" shtick for the camera, but his hosts are clearly doing their best to be kind and accommodating. Why drag innocent people into a cruel joke? It's one thing to expose an ass as an ass, but what's the point of behaving like an ass toward perfectly lovely people? Borat himself is an amusing character. He spouts plenty of boorish, politically-incorrect commentary, but he also reveals a softer side. His infatuation with Pamela Anderson is sweet (if a bit lascivious), and he's not entirely unlikable. I'm just not convinced that we need him out on the streets. Has America's obsession with reality TV spilled onto the big screen? Can't a well-scripted comedy with actual actors take the box office by storm? This fish-out-of-water story has left me thinking about Coming to America, a monster comedy that managed to succeed within the confines of traditional movie-making. The laughs are still there when the players are in on the joke, but it saves the audience a whole lot of cringing. |
| Home | Currently Playing | For Rent | Links | "Get to know us!" ©2007 Moviepie e-mail us |
I had no intention of reviewing Borat when I sat down to watch it. In fact, I had no real intention of finishing Borat when I sat down to watch it. I assumed that one of our intrepid reviewers had taken care of the dirty work long ago, but the task has fallen to me, and now I'm wrestling with one question: to recommend or not to recommend? This is certainly far less traumatic than wrestling with a fat, hairy, naked man on a hotel bedspread, but it's a troubling question nonetheless.
