A better move to the big screen than with "Ali G"

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2008)

A shameless remake of the vastly superior American movie "Dubya: Cultural learnings of Iraqistan for make benefit glorious nation of U.S and A", this movie was, in any case, perhaps the funniest movie of that year...or at least one of the two funniest movies of that year.
Borat, like Dubya in the earlier movie, is one of those gormless innocent abroad types...always putting his foot in his mouth or acting inappropriately. "Borat" doesn't have a classic scene like "Dubya" has (who could ever forget that achingly funny scene where the military police come looking for the draft dodger Dubya but can't find him, as he is hiding under his bed? Of course, when Dubya comes crawling out from under his bed and utters his by now trademark catch-phrase "Mission accomplished", does the whole cinema fall about laughing helplessly) but it has many moments that approach the former movie's hilarity.
For instance-when Borat stays at a Jewish American family's bed and breakfast and expresses patently absurd beliefs about them. For many people, the funniest scene is the gross out moment when Borat unintentionally engages in a "69" type position with a morbidly obese man.
This is a very funny but provocative and ill-mannered pseudo-documentary about a bigoted foreigner in the US. Of course, that he gets away with his dreadful behavior reflects badly on the real Americans he encounters (most of the people in this movie are not actors but real people/dupes). In fact, the truly dreadful people are the ones Borat encounters, not him, as he's not exactly real, is he?
This is writer/performer Sacha Baron Cohen at his best. I think he has brought his TV show ("Da Ali G show") to life on the big screen with this movie. It's a real shame that his first effort on the big screen ("Ali G indahouse") was a dud for straying from the elements which made his TV show so good...interaction with real people.
This movie is hilarious but not for the squeamish or easily (or uneasily) offended.