I liiiike!

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2006)

"Borat" is a brilliant movie, even if you've seen and loved the "Ali G. Show" before. In a lot of ways the Borat from the show is superior to the one in the movie, though: Sacha Baron Cohen's main goal used to be to confront people with Borat's vulgarity and his special views so that all their bigotry would be uncovered. In the movie he only really does that once or twice (namely when he talks to the Rodeo guy and the fret boys). There is also a lot of obviously (and then some rather secretly) staged material here, but you can't always tell. When Borat's comedy is scriptet, however, it isn't half as funny, so when Baron Cohen walks around and introduces his country in the beginning, it's not that hilarious.
Anyway, the movie really gets into gear in its second half. Mr. Baron Cohen takes the whole thing to such extremes you won't be able to believe your eyes. This man is absolutely unafraid of anything. Faux interviews for comedy purposes have been done millions of times before, but never as effectively as here. Borat is just a weirdly lovable, if sexist/racist guy. Speaking of which, to enjoy this you should definitely bring along some understanding for not so politically correct-humor and some mindless slapstick! If you do, there's no way you're going to want to miss this movie. It's a riot (and I've never used that expression before). The absolute highlights include a nude wrestling match between Borat and his overweight manager, and the very final scene, which I'm not going to give away.
Sacha Baron Cohen is doing something here, that's never been done before, if you think about it. He's starring in a movie he's written and everyone else around him is starring in it, too. Only most people aren't aware of it. Even with this kind of setting there's still so much love for detail here that although a lot of key scenes may be staged the whole thing is still adorably well structured and inventive.
"Borat" brings Sacha Baron Cohen a success that's long overdue. Unfortunately, it also marks the death of this character since a) Borat will be commonly known throughout the world after this and b) this movie is unsurpassable, anyway. Bring on the Brüno movie, then!