Hold on there Jethro--- this is OK, but great... NOT

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2006)

'Borat' has some laughs. But how hard is it to ridicule a bunch of lower class Bible-belt hicks and rednecks, though? That doesn't take much imagination, and seeing their earnest adaptation to ignorance and poverty, over and over and over, wears a bit thin. A lot of the humor here was a 'cheap shot'. I don't object, I just point out that while this is a mildly amusing movie, and a bold concept, it is not a great movie. It is certainly not 'the funniest movie in years', as some are claiming. Maybe it was the funniest movie this month.
It also has a lot of cringes too--- such as the naked fat man whose belly fat hangs down so low that his genitals are obscured from sight--- most of the time. He and Borat wrestle around stark naked, and mouths and anuses touch. Ewwww. But whatever.
I kind of admire Cohen's boldness in making this movie, and I don't object to any of it. That's not to say I was thoroughly entertained at all times, either. I could have done without much of it--- especially the 'real life' candid-camera kind of confrontational humor. I HATE that kind of thing, personally. Preying on other people's basic good naturedness is a bit cruel, as is 'stealing' glimpses of their rather dreary and crappy lives, and holding them up for ridicule. We all have stuff we wouldn't want some smart-ass filmmaker to tape and put on the screen without our knowledge, or at least without our fully understanding what the joke is supposed to be. This was definitely a case of laughing at people, not with them. As the late, great Eudora Welty remarked, proper comedy satire is a tool for the weak to 'get back at' the powerful. This was the other way around. The 'powerful', the movie crew, exploited the weak, the dullards who got trapped in Cohen's 'jokes'. That's not proper, it's not nice, and it's not really all that funny. It's mean spirited and ugly at times.
I would ordinarily not be so negative about a comedian I kind of like, because he does bend the noses of the Right-Wing Christians, powerful warlords, and even so-called Liberals, and the like. Except that so many people are hem-kissing and drooling and genuflecting in front of this movie, and it simply isn't THAT funny, nor is it THAT good.