Funny not too funny and legitimately offensive and not in a good way

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2007)

I laughed a number of times during Borat, which was a funny film. A number of scenes are inspired, and I dig the whole clueless foreigner shtick. The film, done in a semi-documentary style, where the people don't know it's a movie, is about Borat, a Kazak newsreporter that comes to the United States to make a documentary only to have chaos ensue. Being based off a character on the Ali G show, I always thought that the character, Ali G had more funny scenes on that show, and this one disappointingly recycles gags from the show, but overall the gags remain new and enticing the way through. However, the biggest creative problem is that the character of Borat, himself, is one joke, and that joke starts to become thin. In fact, he is so one-dimensional that it kind of brings down the movie by making it too one-note in that department, but the strength of the supporting material keeps it afloat. It's a sure 7 out of 10.
I must also say that while I do not mind the cruelest of humor in fictional settings, the fact that this deals with real people, who are speaking without knowledge of the joke, adds an unnaceptable edge to some of the humor. The things they do to some of these real people are simply mean and disrespectful. I always felt that in the television show, there was always an element of warmness to various fake interviews and sketches, but I only got that in a few of the bits here. This doesn't affect whether it's a good movie or not, but I just want to say that I don't approve of humor that hurts real people, without their knowledge.