Staged scenes and reality

Rating: 4/10 (14 April 2007)

For me, the Borat "shorts" were usually very funny. The way he approaches people that do not realise he's not from Kazachstan, is very nice.
However this film about Borat really fails to be funny. Most of the time his character relies on sex, while the shorts often contain very politic elements (e.g animal protection group, government election, etc).
My problem is that the makers of this movie staged several scenes, and want you to believe it is real. I have no problems with staged scenes that carry the story: it's clearly fiction! But the "drivers lesson" scene and the "student in a van" scene to name a few, made me think: "hey, do the makers really want to cheat me? Do they think the public is dumb?".
How big the nonsense is; as a maker you should not underestimate the public, don't cheat them! Some great scenes include the rodeo anthem, the Pamela scene and the nude-in-a-hotel scene (a scene where 'sex' is also functional; it's terribly embarrassing to see how people respond).