The ratings surprise me

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 2007)

I know a number of people who enjoyed Borat hugely (my wife, my daughter and I laughed until our sides ached) but I also know many who found the whole thing offensive. I suppose the vote distribution on IMDb demonstrates that this site is not representative of the movie-going public, because my observation is that fully a third of the people who've talked to me about the movie found it thoroughly disagreeable or stayed away altogether knowing what it was about. All credit to Sasha Baron Cohen for conceptualizing and executing the cross country adventures of a Kazakh TV newsman creating a documentary about America. Frankly, in addition to admiring what he did in this film, I also have to wonder about the wisdom of allowing people to make fools of themselves without apparent consideration of the personal risks that might be involved. I could easily imagine one of his victims going after him with a baseball bat or a revolver.