Shocking! Funny!!

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2007)

Well, if you think that South Park is bad, think twice. If you consider Benny Hill's jokes to be obscene, wait a bit. If you criticized Monty Python for its gross and blatant lack of political correctness, now come and taste Borat. What, you still haven't seen this yet? Borat is a brutal, absolutely limitless and endless waterfall of humor that is so cynical, so unrestrained, and so dark, that any weak-hearted person may get crazy. Borat is a Kazakhstan TV-persona (as the story goes), who lives in shockingly poor village and then is sent to the USA to "teach Kazakh people lessons". The whole film is a non-stop, multicolored, multi-dimensional assault of crude, vivid, cruel gags and jokes, where there is not a single topic left that is forbidden in the States. Jews, gays, Afro-Americans, patriots, Southerners, Mr. Bush, Iraqi war, disabled persons, Charismatic churches, The Baywatch  everything is mocked at with no limit and with no boundary. Borat speaks this terrible, wrong American and makes such horrible mistakes that it only multiples the effects by a mile. And it works. The film is one unstoppable burst of laughter, and the pun, the sarcasm, the irony hit the aim. Sometimes, you have to rub your eyes in utter disbelief, so hilarious it all is. Borat, in fact, is a marvelous movie equivalent of Frank Zappa with all his caustic jokes and disdain, and he is a great follower of South Park tradition where no sacred cow is left untouched. The very fact that this film is prohibited in Russia and Kazakhstan to appear on wide screens speaks tons for it. Do not watch it if you lack sense of humor or if you are painfully touchy. This is a dish not for the weak stomachs and it will feed you with thoughts and ideas to ponder for days and days.