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Borat

Shade

New Member
Or to give it its full title (which doesn't fit into the title bar) Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Now then: we headed out last night to see the multiply eulogised Pan's Labyrinth, only to find out local independent cinema with its doors closed, "due to staffing problems"! So off to the nearest multiplex and Borat turned out to be the next thing on.

And talk about bathos! Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous! Borat for me is in a shortlist of one for worst film of the year. It aims low - laugh at the funny confused people! - and fails to deliver. Did Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian (a reliably unreliable source at the best of times), who gave it five stars, really see the same film? Even the reliably reliable Philip French in the Observer was, I think, being generous when he called it "sporadically amusing."

If we take as a starting point the proposition - surely unarguable - that it's not funny to try to embarrass people when they're doing their best to be kind and hospitable to you, then Borat falls on its face for about 70% of its running time. A patient driving instructor; a professionally unflappable TV anchorman; an elderly B&B-owning couple: Sacha Baron Cohen's targets are not exactly brave or difficult. In almost all cases the people respond to him with politeness and tolerance, and indeed there are many encounters which are cut off after the initial greeting, presumably because they never developed into anything funny.

And then about 25% of the film is scripted stuff which is equally rib-untickling, consisting mostly of irate, subtitled exchanges between Borat and his obese, hairy producer, including one long naked fight scene which makes Bubbles in Little Britain look like the height of comic sophistication. That's the problem throughout: if the scenes are scripted (it's sometimes unclear), they're not funny enough; if they're improvised, they're unremarkable.

Which leaves the final 5%, which seems to be the parts which were used - if not by the filmmakers then by the critics who praised the film - to justify its blunt 'humour', the notion that this was a satirical masterpiece where the appearance of the naive foreign reporter gave unreconstructed homophobes, racists and bigots just enough rope to hang themselves. In fact it only happens twice: once when a guy at the rodeo rails against Muslims and homosexuals, and once when one of a trio of repellent frat boys makes some vague references to 'minorities' having all the rights (after the crew took them out and got them drunk to loosen their tongues). That's it. The much-vaunted scene at the rodeo where Borat earns the crowd's applause for urging George W Bush to "drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq" actually shows the applause becoming increasingly scattered and polite at this stage (and the boos which accompany his rendition of the Kazakh national anthem were clearly dubbed on afterwards, as we don't see anyone close-up jeering him even though they managed to have half a dozen cameras trained on sections of the crowd cheering him earlier).

And then there's the belittling cruelty of the opening and closing scenes in the film, set in 'Kazakhstan' (actually Romania), basically getting chuckles out of how crap these people's lives are and how hilariously primitive they seem. Little wonder that the villagers are suing the filmmakers for misrepresenting the nature of their enterprise to them (they were told they were participating in a film about poverty). Good luck to them.

There's no satire, intelligence, wit or merit in Bore-at. At an hour and 20 minutes it's too long, and if it had been shown on C4 for free I would have felt short changed. It has done incredibly well in cinemas both here and in the US. The world has gone mad.
 
Did you ever see any of Borat's segments on Da Ali G Show, Shade? Or is this the first time you have come into contact with the character?

Borat doesn't really display Sacha's true comic genius - Ali G interacts with far more prominent citizens and is a lot funnier.
 
Yes, I'm pretty familiar with his stuff and indeed thought Borat was a very funny character until I saw the film. Perhaps he works best in 3-minute segments.

Which brings me to a related point. Ali G could be very funny too, but the central joke of him playing a white guy who acted like a black guy was only partly successful as far as I was concerned. When he said his catchphrase, "Is it because I is black?" it was supposed to be a self-evidently ridiculous question. Problem is, it wasn't. Sacha Baron Cohen is actually quite swarthy and an observer - particularly from my pasty-faced Celtic neck of the woods - could easily believe him to be of some mildly mixed ethnic heritage. And his central schtick was the same as Borat's, really - play the dumb outsider and see how people respond, ie try to embarrass people who are trying to be nice to you. Yes, it worked better with celebrities because they were often people who deserved to be made to look ridiculous... but in Borat, the vast majority of the participants were decent people being used as straight men for no great humorous purpose.

There is a great (British, in particular) comedy tradition of creating monsters to show up the prejudices of a type of person - from Alf Garnett to Alan Partridge - but they had the distinction of being tightly scripted and witty. Borat isn't any of those things.

Apparently SBC's next project is to bring his gay fashion presenter Bruno to the big screen. D'you mind if I sit this one out?
 
I need to find a writer to represent Kazakstan..I hate to think this is the best I'll be able to find.
 
Good review Shade.
I did find it funny in places; Borat's mannerisms are humourous in a quirky sort of way. The entire cinema hall was cracking up with laughter from start to end and I just relaxed and went with the atmosphere.
Overall though it doesn't live up to the reviews, and the style is a bit strange - it's not really a mockumentary(sp?) but it's not a tightly scripted film either. I think Shade is spot on when he says
Perhaps he works best in 3-minute segments.

MC have you had a chance to see it yet?
 
MC have you had a chance to see it yet?
Not yet - I'm planning on seeing it tomorrow. I don't like the idea of parts of it being scripted, although sa Shade pointed out, I'm guessing that he just didn't have enough "true" encounters that were funny enough to be included. I did hear something about a DVD that's been released using only the deleted scenes, though.

I'm with Shade on the Bruno movie - I don't find Bruno to be overly funny. He's really just a one-trick horse, really, isn't he? There's not much you can do with a character like Bruno. I really did like his interviews as Ali G, though - some of the questions that he put to people were actually quite good.

It's funny that you would mention Alan Patridge, Shade. I've been watching clips of it on the internet, and it's fast becoming one of my favourite shows. I didn't really see the connection beforehand, but now that you mention it, the principle behind their comedy is much the same.
 
Borat for me is in a shortlist of one for worst film of the year.

It's got pretty stiff competion (he he, I said stiff!) in the utter crapfest that is Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny. In fact I would put Borat above it, simply because Borat has made some money and Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny is unfunny fanwank. Review to follow, of course.
 
And talk about bathos! Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous! Borat for me is in a shortlist of one for worst film of the year. It aims low - laugh at the funny confused people! - and fails to deliver.


There's no satire, intelligence, wit or merit in Bore-at. At an hour and 20 minutes it's too long, and if it had been shown on C4 for free I would have felt short changed. It has done incredibly well in cinemas both here and in the US. The world has gone mad.

I'm still amazed that any of this came to a surprise to you. It's like listening to Howard Stern hoping he might say something intelligent.
 
Stewart: I refer you to jennifer's reply, which could equally apply to Tenacious D. I used to think Jack Black was intrinsically funny - sometime around High Fidelity maybe. Now he just irritates me on sight.

Jennifer: you're right. I'm a damn fool... :(
 
Jennifer: you're right. I'm a damn fool... :(

So which scene captivated you enough to fork over $20 to see the film on the big screen?

For me it was the proper dinner table behavior scene. The "in my country" comment was hilarious. More the reactions to the statement, but still hilarious.

Yea, it was crap.

What amazes me, is this guy is dating Isla Fisher - the super hot nympho on Wedding Crashers. He's twice her height, but obviously something about/with him works.
 
$20 for a movie? :eek:
Converted, I pay $21.70 a month and get unlimited cinema.

I think the going rate around here is still $8 for feature film.So $16 for two tickets+ at least $4 for a jumbo drink and popcorn ( probably lots more-depends on the theater) and one can easily chunk out $20 for one movie.
 
$20 for a movie? :eek:
Converted, I pay $21.70 a month and get unlimited cinema.

I only go to the movies once in a while, and it's about $20 for the two of us, if we eat, add $10 to that.

WHY we chose to spend $20 on Borat was a question for both of us afterwards. And we both agreed, that was one to skip. We called our friends immediately and stopped them from making the same mistake.

If you're the kind of person who finds the humor in Borat funny, I still recommend waiting for DVD.

It's not worth movie theater prices.
 
Just saw this one tonight, absolutely hideous and dull.

We should encourage Russia to take over their former possessions, or threaten to do so ourselves.
 
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