For those of you who missed out on Andy Kaufman...

Rating: 1/10 (21 November 2006)

Except that Andy Kaufman was a truly brilliant comedian - Sacha Cohen is merely an imitative cretin without the talent or imagination to make his mark on the world of comedy in any meaningful way. It's true that Andy Kaufman's comedy often made its audience uncomfortable (Tony Clifton, anyone?)but what separates Kaufman's routines from this crap is that it did not make discomfort its sole source of comedy. This fine, but important, distinction between the two men is what separates the geniuses from the mewling pukes who exemplify the worst of "reality" based entertainment.
In this fantastically horrible pile of trash, Cohen's alter-ego Borat buffoons his way across America and gets those wonderfully credulous everymen to join in making asses of themselves. Borat is not funny enough to sustain an entire film, so what cheaper way is there to pad a meaningless waste of time than to film regular joes acting stupid? He might have tried writing some decent material, but not everyone is cut out for that line of work, lacking either the talent, intelligence or humor to do so.
Sure, sure, I've heard the arguments that by parading about as Borat, and getting regular folks to speak what's really on their minds, Sacha Cohen is exposing anti-Semitism in everyday life, but he does it by lampooning the Kazakhstani people in a way that can best be described as ignorant and bigoted. In fact, if this movie were directed at Jews, it would be declared to be the most objectionable movie to hit the screen since Birth of a Nation.
Even if you ignore the fact that this movie is mean-spirited, ignorant, xenophobic, and imitative, the bottom line is that it also is just not very funny either.
1 out of 10.