Let me start off by saying that I have been a huge fan of Sacha Baron Cohen from the first time I watched him as Ali G during the first season of the HBO series Ali G in 2003. Baron Cohen is extremely smart and quick witted. He has a gift for reading people and many times extracting their true feelings and prejudices. In each episode, he plays three separate TV reporter characters that are completely different and unique. The first character is a confused hip hop fascinated reporter that goes by Ali G. His second character is a famous TV reporter from Kazakhstan named Borat. Finally he plays a gay Austrian TV reporter named Bruno that wears a woman’s thong and regularly hits on guys that he is interviewing.

From the beginning, Borat has been my favorite of the three characters as I found him to be by far the funniest. Since he is from a completely different culture and belief system, the things he says, does, and gets away with are (at times) unbelievable. People also speak to him very freely for some reason and are very tolerant of his ignorance of everyday simple things.

One of my all time favorite Borat scenes, is his interview with James Broadwater (a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Mississippi). In this interview Borat's questioning led Broadwater to openly state his belief that Jews would go to Hell since they did not follow the Christian religion and beliefs. It should be noted that Baron Cohen is a self declared devoted Jew and not the bigot that he appears to be while in the Borat character. If that was not damaging enough, Borat and Broadwater then take to the streets for grass roots campaigning. In the next scene while visiting a female constituent, Borat is shocked when he learns that women in America can vote and laughs openly when she declares that women and men are equal. He then states his belief that women are less than horses and dogs but a step up from rat.

“God, man, horse, dog, woman, rat and then a little krutzouli" – Borat Sagdiyev

In a discussion with another unsuspecting woman, Borat explains that Broadwater will be a strong ruler, “like Stalin”. He warns her that if Broadwater is not elected he will “Take Power”. Finally in a discussion with a man Borat explains to him that Broadwater has a big Khaam (his word for testicles) which will make him a good ruler and asks if the man wishes to touch it. All in all, it is an immensely funny and clever episode from start to finish.

When I learned about the making of Borat movie, I was extremely excited. If the movie had any of the genius that the Borat episodes had, it would surely be one of the funniest movies ever. On November 3, 2006 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan opened in select theaters across America to rave reviews by many movie critics. Before I watched it myself, I heard a full range of reviews from friends and family. Most of the guys loved it and most of the girls were indifferent or did not like it, which I expected. So I decided that it was time to experience it for myself.

The basic premise of the movie is that Borat is sent to America to make a documentary about American Culture for the government of Kazakhstan. He and his producer and camera man arrive in New York to start their filming. Borat catches a rerun of the TV show Baywatch in which Pamela Anderson stars as CJ. He falls in love with Pamela and decides to shoot the documentary while traveling across America on their journey from New York to Los Angeles where he hopes to meet and marry his new love.


My Impression:
While the movie had some incredibly funny moments I felt it lacked the creative inspiration found in Baron Cohen's earlier Borat works. To me, I found many scenes of the movie to be much the same or at least similar to scenes from his HBO series. With that said, there were definitely some scenes that stood out.

Watching the reactions of New Yorker to Borat's attempts to befriend them and kiss them was hilarious. He was threatened with violence, threatened with legal action, and one man simply took off running in absolute horror while Borat chased him screaming that he wanted to be the man's friend. I could not help laugh at the guy's reaction but at the same time feel a little sorry for him. It was classic.

I also found particularly funny when Borat, while at a rodeo in Virginia rallied the decidedly pro-American crowd by voicing his support for America's “War OF Terror”. He then added to his statement "I hope you kill every man, woman, and child in Iraq, down to the lizards...and may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq". The crowd had mixed emotions...

With that said, I found the infamous hotel scene, which many people mention as the funniest in the entire movie, to be disgusting and not funny at all. To me, the scene might as well have been gay porn as Borat and his producer fight completely naked in their hotel room. As I explained to some friends, “you would not have been laughing had you accidentally changed the channel on your TV and saw something like that.”

Overall, I give Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan a 2.5 out of 5. I recommend waiting to watch it when it hits DVD as it was funny and had its moments but overall it probably was not worth $9.00 a ticket at the local movie theater. To the die hard Borat fan, it offered very little new material which was very disappointing, but might not as big of a deal to a new Borat fan.