After a number of glowing reviews (including from friends), I decided to go see the movie Borat this afternoon. I don't think I'm going to heap quite the lavish praise on it as most people seem to be giving it -- but I do have to say it's quite good.Foremost, it's funny. Laugh out loud funny, most of the time. I don't usually go for the sort of "Candid Camera" style humor (normal folks being taped), or for Andy Kaufman style humor (comedian who never ever breaks character and finds much humor at the audience's expense), but strangely, when the two get swirled together in this bizarre blender, it works.
But really, it's the satire of this movie that is strongest of all. Sacha Baron Cohen has created an absolutely proposterous character, and yet when he interacts with real people, he's often not the most outlandish persona on the screen. There are times when I'm not sure whether to laugh at or be horrified by some of the attitudes of the people he's found.
Speaking of horrifying, this movie contains possibly the most awful scene ever committed to film. Oh, it's funny -- can't catch your breath, tears streaming down your face funny. And it leaves "cringe worthy" so far in its dust that I can't even find words to do it justice. There was a couple behind us in the theater, a man and woman perhaps in their early 20s, and she was actually shrieking and stomping on the floor in discomfort. I think a basket of live tarantulas dropped on her head would not have garnered a stronger response.
Oddly, in the row in front of us were three old ladies in their 60s -- there at the movie with no one else. I wonder if they knew what they were getting into, and what they thought afterward?
In any case, I give it a B+ -- in part not marking it higher because I'm not sure it would hold up well to repeat viewings. If you do think you want to see it, though, I strongly recommend you go in the theater and not wait for home video. This is the sort of movie where at least half the experience is the reaction of the crowd around you.
4 comments:
Meh...I guess I just don't find anti-semitism all that funny
Ok, can you jot down which scene that is? Mr Happy and paramour went to see it last night and I think the rest of us are down for Thursday so I want to compare notes...
I couldn't fathom it being mistaken for any other scene, but just in case... it's the wrestling in the hotel room.
Everyone I know who has seen this movie has enjoyed it, and the amazingly positive reviews it has gotten have convinced me that I should see it at some point.
Still, given I quickly grew tired of Cohen's schtick on Da Ali G Show, I don't expect I will love this like some have.
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