Funniest movie of the year? Quite possibly. Funniest movie ever? Not even close.

Rating: 9/10 (14 November 2006)

I had heard countless glowing reviews of the Borat movie in newspapers and on TV and on the radio for weeks before I saw it, and almost every single review I heard or saw or read praised the sheer comedic genius of the movie, claiming that it was not only the best movie of the year, but the best movie ever made. Needless to say, this brought my expectations to nearly astronomical proportions, and by the time I saw it I was nearly vibrating with anticipation. I suppose the problem may have been that my expectations had been raised so high, combined with the fact that I stupidly brought my girlfriend with me to see it, but while I did find many parts of the movie side-splittingly hilarious, there were too many others that just fell completely flat or that once again trudged through standard scenes that I had hoped to never again see in any movie ever again at any time for any reason anywhere ever.
As one giant, hideously obese, and bestially hairy example, I had hoped that the Jackass movie was the first and last time that I would see a hairy, naked fat man in a film for comedic purposes, but Borat shattered my dreams. Now, I can handle nudity in the movies, even male nudity, even unattractive male nudity, but I just have no desire or reason to watch a naked fat man wrestling a naked skinny man in a movie, especially in a fight that involves the two men inadvertently getting into, and then gyrating in, numerous sexual positions. In fact, until they finally make Stephen King's Dark Tower series into movies, I don't ever want to see naked men fighting in a movie until The Drawing of the Three.
That being said, I suppose I should not waste too much time complaining about specific scenes that I yawned through, because the movie really does have a tremendous amount of comic genius in it. Borat's discovery that women in America are able to choose who they will or will not have sex with is one of the funniest things I've seen in a movie in years, as is his rendition of the Kazakhstan national anthem, sung to the tune of the American national anthem.
This scene, incidentally, perfectly illustrates the technique that Sacha Baron Cohen uses for the surprisingly prevalent social commentary in the movie. The script and the character of Borat will obviously attract dozens of interest groups interested in lawsuits because they don't see the comedy in the movie or because they just can't overlook the slurs that Borat makes (and he makes a LOT, even in giving interviews to reporters about the movie. I heard an interview of him with Theresa Strosser for the Adam Carolla morning show in which, after telling her that in his country, having women journalists is "like to give a monkey a gun," he fled in blind fear when he found out she was Jewish), so it comes to my mind that it is really sad that so many people will take the literal meaning and ignore the obvious comment on such things that really exist in society.
Consider this, Borat and his friend run in sheer terror in the middle of the night out of the house of a sweet, elderly Jewish couple who have taken them in for the night, petrified with fear for their lives. So here's my question - Who looks ridiculous because of this, Jewish people, or the people that are afraid of them?
I found the national anthem scene to be one of the more interesting scenes, because Borat is making a very clear comment on the political beliefs of people in middle America (and maybe all of America), although I think that this message was lost on a lot of American audiences, just like it was on his live audience that day. When Borat exclaims, "I support your war of terror!" not only is there no pause or awkward looks about his Freudian slip, I suppose you could say, but the audience immediately bursts into applause. I'm not sure if this is meant to be a comment on the general intelligence levels of Bush supporters or on their immediate, thoughtless adherence to people and things and ideas that are familiar and agree with tradition, but the scene illustrates that there is a lot more going on here than some Jewish guy making Jew jokes with a heavy Kazakhstani accent.
At any rate, what you have here is not necessarily a movie that you will either love or hate, but that you will understand the people who feel exactly the opposite way you do, regardless of how much you disagree with them. Like every terrible, unsolvable controversy, there is no easy solution to Borat because both sides have a pretty strong argument, and there is no definitive answer to solve the debate. Yes, it is a brilliant comedy that will more than likely make you just about fall out of your chair laughing several times, but yes, it can also be highly offensive.
The real question is, can you watch a movie like this and walk away knowing there exist in the real world things that need to be changed, or is your first thought that we ought to fly over and take out the evildoer(s)?