Hilarious Toilet Humor Movie-Film Masquerading as Satire

Rating: 7/10 (3 July 2007)

This movie is not, I repeat, NOT, a satire of anything. It is about as intelligent and finessed as anything Tom Green and the "Jackass" boys could churn out, and just as funny. Personally, I think this stuff is the cream of the crop; I love no-brow, sick toilet humor as much as the next Tom Green fan. I consider "Freddy Got Fingered" a veritable masterpiece, and wish Steve-O would sign a ten-picture deal with Warner Brothers. With that said, I must express serious misgivings about the "Borat" movie, namely its attempt to show itself as something more than what it is: a disgusting gross-out comedy that relies on shock humor for laughs.
Sacha Baron Cohen's admirers would have you believe that this film merits plaudits from critics and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its searing mockery of American racism and prejudice. Such victims of Cohen's venom include the promoter of a Virginia rodeo and drunk frat boys in an RV. Both make blatantly homophobic and sexist remarks, with Borat apparently nodding in approval. Now, other than that, what more is there to this? The comments of the prejudiced people are buried in a sea of graphic nudity and scatology that overwhelm and over-awe anyone who tries to find anything remotely redeeming about this movie. Cohen's attempts at satire and mockery of prejudice are hollow at best. This film isn't about making the world a better place; it's about humiliating unsuspecting people with gross antics, and cashing in on their humiliation.
Cohen is no more brilliant than Tom Green or Johnny Knoxville, who do candid, reality-TV antics very similar to Cohen's "Borat". His "foreign-man" character hearkens back to a long and shopworn tradition trod by such luminaries as Andy "Latka" Kaufman and Bronson "Balki Bartokomos" Pinchot. Cohen even directly imitates one of Green's least-funny antics: breaking the merchandise in a shop. Cohen is less likable than Green, who also targeted innocent bystanders, in the mean-spiritedness of his humor. Green never relied on anti-semitism or blatant sexism to make a point. Cohen does seem to have a mean streak about him. I felt very sorry for the shop owner who had his merchandise trashed by Cohen, and was rewarded with some of Borat's national---ahem!---"currency."
Still, as an admirer of gross-out humor, I did enjoy this film for what it was. The best scene was when Cohen wrestled with the morbidly-obese Azamat, and when he cheered the messenger for informing him of his wife's death by an animal attack. Cohen was very creative in forming a story-arc of searching for Pamela Anderson, and using unsuspecting people as characters in that fictional plot line. He did do some good in lampooning Pamela Anderson's status as an international sex symbol, as well as "Baywatch's" alleged international appeal. Of course, the "not" joke with the joke instructor was actually quite clever and humorous, and ironically much lighter and sweeter than the gross-out antics that proliferate the screen.
In short, I have very mixed feelings about this film and Sacha Baron Cohen's standing in Hollywood. I enjoyed the gross toilet humor, but was irked with Cohen's attempt to make this film into something more than a variation on the "Jackass" variety of reality TV shock humor. The critical praise for this movie is suspect, as this movie, quite literally, is the emperor (and his obese assistant) without clothes.