Overexposure detracts from experience

Rating: 7/10 (4 November 2006)

The day after our wedding, my wife and I sat down to go through our wedding gifts. Among the appliances, gift cards, and cookware, we discovered a copy of 'Da Ali G Show, the Complete Second Season' on DVD. I had seen snippets of the show on HBO, but had never paid much attention to it. Hungover, and too poor to go on a honeymoon at that point, we decided to pop it in the player and veg out. To make a long story short, we quickly realized that it was some of the funniest material we had ever seen. We watched all the episodes, and then watched them again. Cohen is undoubtedly a comic genius, and his act has produced some of the longest and hardest laughs I have ever had in my whole life. It is probably the funniest show I have ever seen.
However, it is this affinity for the show that has caused my relatively low rating for this movie. If you have seen the TV show, then I don't think that your socks will be blown off by the film. Cohen goes in for the same gags and devices that made the show so damn funny (e.g. the nude pictures of his family members and the southern dinner party theme), and there was not much in the way of novelty for those already familiar with the character. The best thing about Borat is his unpredictability; in the movie, he did not do much that was not expected (with a few VERY notable exceptions).
That being said, this is definitely a funny movie. If you are familiar with the show, the now infamous nude wrestling scene alone makes this flick worth seeing. If you have never seen Borat in action before, I envy you. You are going to laugh til' you puke, I would guess. By the way, I think this movie has received such great reviews because most critics fall into the latter camp.
As an aside, I think the final scene had to have been staged. If it was not, Cohen has the biggest cajones in the world. If "CJ" did not agree to that out-and-out assault and battery, Cohen could have been looking at a huge law suit and/or extradition hearing in addition to vast box office receipts.