One of the funniest films I have seen in a long time. I was never a fan of Ali G but his Borat is a masterclass in comedy. I was both laughing and mortified at the responses of some of the Americans in the movie. I know they were set up for a fall by Cohen's emotive language and seemingly naive nature but to think that people still think like that is terrible. It isn't even a slight on the US people if he had made that movie in Britain, France or anywhere he would have still got the same responses he was fishing for.
The scenes that really made me shudder was him buying a gun from a shop run by someone I wouldn't let two miles within a firearm and the rodeo scene. Although the frat boys though typically 'laddish' were more to be pitied than vilified.
All in all a great film. I had the privilage of watching it in the US and the response of the audience was heartwarming. Shocked and horrified gasps at the right places, belly-shaking laughter and damn right gross out noises at the movies er...wrestling. Recommended.
Having watched Da Ali G-show and others so many times, the whole range of SBCOhen's characters has worn out for me personally.
That's why I didn't quite find the movie as funny as the short skits on Ali G-shows. And since the movie clearly has in it many scenes that don't involve only real people, but also actors (well it's a movie) who are "in on the gag" it kind of takes away from the original concept and enjoyment.
And the use of actors for certain scenes also blurs the concept and makes the viewer re-consider whether some of the presumable "real people" in real situations were real to begin with.
Harshly put, Borat is a compilation of skits from various years glued together by a very mediocre storyline. His Bruno-movie will probably be the same, since I'm sure they have a lot of left-over material of Bruno-bits.
The concept of people really buying into believing that the man they encounter is a Kazakhstani-journalist (who looks nothing like your average Kazakhstani person) is asdmittedly comedy gold. Cohen's Kazakhstani language is a mix of Polish-gibberish and Hebrew, so It would be quite funny to see bits where he has been "exposed".
But while I may not laugh at everything in the movie, I'm sure Cohen laughs all the way to the bank.
I went to see it, and the funny thing was, the cinema was full of old people who were expecting an intelligent documentary of some sort. My experiance can be summed up as this:
Movie ticket: $9
Popcorn and L&P combo: $5
The look on an old lady's face as she watches two naked Kazakstani's wrestle over Pamela Anderson: Priceless