2008 Woodie Awards
Borat: Movie provide some good laugh and excitements but gross-out scene make critic want to puke
**1/2 (of 4), 84 Minutes, R
Roger Priddy
Issue date: 11/14/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Borat is one of Sacha Baron Cohen's popular characters from his TV series "Da Ali G. Show." Borat can be described in a nutshell like this: he's from Kazakhstan, he kisses men on the cheeks to greet them, he likes sex with women, he hates Jews and he utterly does not have a clue.
The movie's full title is actually Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but for length's sake I'll refer to it simply as "Borat." Though it does provide some quality laughs and some haunting American satirical commentary, I found it to be overblown and, unfortunately, one of the film's scenes just massacred it for me.
Borat Sagdiyev is a popular TV personality in Kazakhstan and is sent to the United States to make a documentary about the "greatest, most powerful country in the world." But on his first night of the mission, while flicking through TV channels in his hotel room, he comes across a rerun of "Baywatch." Hastily he becomes infatuated with "CJ," Pamela Anderson, and becomes much more interested in locating and marrying Pamela than on his assignment (which has happened to me personally a few times with Yasmine Bleeth too). The movie is the story of how he, America, and Kazakhstan somehow all survive the trip.
There is indeed truly something to offend everyone here. Liberal or conservative, Pentecostal or feminist, black, white, or Jew, Borat is an equal-opportunity offender. But it's a funny movie. There is some mass, cult, college student appeal here. A number of scenes are laugh-out boisterously. And there is some substance behind the humor, some disturbing reflections drawn during the laughter. But, beyond the neo-Cohen/Borat fans, this movie has been both over hyped and overrated. Some critics have called it "one of the funniest movies ever." It's certainly not that, though it is one of the funnier comedies I've seen this year (factoring in that it's been a weak year for comedies). It's far from Little Miss Sunshine and definitely not the funniest movie ever. Nevertheless, I solidly enjoyed the first half of Borat, and was having a 3-star quality experience.
Then the movie slowed down a little bit. Then it threw in some repulsive pictures and tired, done crap humor. But I was still okay with it, still motoring along. Then came the scene.
Oh my goodness. Before I've seen individual scenes so awesome that they make an okay movie great, and scenes so abysmal they make an okay movie terrible. But never can I remember a scene that simply annihilated a movie for me like the interminable, nude fight scene in Borat that is just the definition of unwatchable. I think it is honestly the sickest, most disgusting, absolutely morbid scene I have ever witnessed in a movie. It makes some of the sadistic, blood-spewing, vomit-inducing stuff from Saw 3 seem like a peaceful picnic in the park. It was crude, lewd, and just downright wrong. If I wasn't a critic, and it wasn't my duty and my responsibility to watch the whole film, I might have just walked out then. But I sat through the rest of it, and though there were some more decent laughs afterward, in my mind it never recovered.
The strength of the Cohen's humor is using his characters to interact with real people (as he often did on the HBO TV series). Seeing folks live vehemently spew out their own prejudices and ignorance works, and those parts of Borat were effective, funny, and witty. But not only in the one particular scene, but in general, when things were faked and stupidity and crudity was just maxed out for laughs, the movie did not work.
You can be lenient and let Cohen's character get away with being offensive, probably mean-spirited, sort of a jerk, and not that especially likeable. But I just can't let the movie get away with being nauseatingly, harrowingly sick, and that's what it is at times. Again, it unquestionably does have some laughs, and it undoubtedly has its university audience. But when it goes all scatological and makes Freddy Got Fingered seem pure, that's a bit much for me.
The movie's full title is actually Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but for length's sake I'll refer to it simply as "Borat." Though it does provide some quality laughs and some haunting American satirical commentary, I found it to be overblown and, unfortunately, one of the film's scenes just massacred it for me.
Borat Sagdiyev is a popular TV personality in Kazakhstan and is sent to the United States to make a documentary about the "greatest, most powerful country in the world." But on his first night of the mission, while flicking through TV channels in his hotel room, he comes across a rerun of "Baywatch." Hastily he becomes infatuated with "CJ," Pamela Anderson, and becomes much more interested in locating and marrying Pamela than on his assignment (which has happened to me personally a few times with Yasmine Bleeth too). The movie is the story of how he, America, and Kazakhstan somehow all survive the trip.
There is indeed truly something to offend everyone here. Liberal or conservative, Pentecostal or feminist, black, white, or Jew, Borat is an equal-opportunity offender. But it's a funny movie. There is some mass, cult, college student appeal here. A number of scenes are laugh-out boisterously. And there is some substance behind the humor, some disturbing reflections drawn during the laughter. But, beyond the neo-Cohen/Borat fans, this movie has been both over hyped and overrated. Some critics have called it "one of the funniest movies ever." It's certainly not that, though it is one of the funnier comedies I've seen this year (factoring in that it's been a weak year for comedies). It's far from Little Miss Sunshine and definitely not the funniest movie ever. Nevertheless, I solidly enjoyed the first half of Borat, and was having a 3-star quality experience.
Then the movie slowed down a little bit. Then it threw in some repulsive pictures and tired, done crap humor. But I was still okay with it, still motoring along. Then came the scene.
Oh my goodness. Before I've seen individual scenes so awesome that they make an okay movie great, and scenes so abysmal they make an okay movie terrible. But never can I remember a scene that simply annihilated a movie for me like the interminable, nude fight scene in Borat that is just the definition of unwatchable. I think it is honestly the sickest, most disgusting, absolutely morbid scene I have ever witnessed in a movie. It makes some of the sadistic, blood-spewing, vomit-inducing stuff from Saw 3 seem like a peaceful picnic in the park. It was crude, lewd, and just downright wrong. If I wasn't a critic, and it wasn't my duty and my responsibility to watch the whole film, I might have just walked out then. But I sat through the rest of it, and though there were some more decent laughs afterward, in my mind it never recovered.
The strength of the Cohen's humor is using his characters to interact with real people (as he often did on the HBO TV series). Seeing folks live vehemently spew out their own prejudices and ignorance works, and those parts of Borat were effective, funny, and witty. But not only in the one particular scene, but in general, when things were faked and stupidity and crudity was just maxed out for laughs, the movie did not work.
You can be lenient and let Cohen's character get away with being offensive, probably mean-spirited, sort of a jerk, and not that especially likeable. But I just can't let the movie get away with being nauseatingly, harrowingly sick, and that's what it is at times. Again, it unquestionably does have some laughs, and it undoubtedly has its university audience. But when it goes all scatological and makes Freddy Got Fingered seem pure, that's a bit much for me.
Be the first to comment on this story