A swipe at political correctness more than a comedy

Rating: 6/10 (20 November 2006)

Fans of Ali G and Bruno are likely to be disappointed.
Borat seems to aim to shock at least as much as to amuse. While the film contains enough occasions for hilarity, it also gets increasingly baffling as the delirious storyline achieves a pitch. A number of questions suggest themselves to the mystified viewer. Why does Borat greet people in Polish? Are the antisemitic fantasies really meant to be funny and, if so, who are they poking fun at exactly? Americans, Kazakhs, anti-semitism in general? In many of the scenes whose victims are unwitting, who is meant to be holding the camera? In fact, while some of Cohen's targets exhibit the customary tendency to put foot in mouth, even degenerating into pure crassness, others seem rather polite and patient with his antics.
Perhaps this is simple mystification, after all.