Gut-wrenching laughter

Rating: 9/10 (6 November 2006)

It's hard to know how to describe or review Borat. I mean, how do you describe a movie that gets huge laughs from the Running of the Jew, or two hairy men wrestling naked? The movie has some of the hugest laughs I've ever experienced in the movie. At one point, I was literally bent over in my seat, pounding the chair in front of me with my fist (thankfully, a moderately attended morning showing and the seat was empty).
The movie relies on pretty much every funny trick in the bag; physical humor, verbal humor (Borat's fractured language), sight gags (check out Azamat's fridge!), in-your-face rudeness, ethnic stereotypes used in a way to defeat the stereotypes (Even Borat is a spoof on how Americans view foreigners), a little politics (the rodeo), and even the jokes that you have to think about (watching the pentacostalists suddenly start speaking in tongues, and realizing that this is pretty much what Borat's been doing the entire movie). Almost all of it is fresh, audacious, and hilarious.
Easy to decide if you want to see the movie, by the way. If it sounds like something you'd like, it delivers everything you'd expect. If it sounds like something you'd hate, it delivers everything you fear.