Hype = Hollow

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2006)

So much has been said about Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial and successful comedy "Borat: Cultural learning's of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan": there have been lawsuits; Cohen has been involved in physical altercations with people who didn't like the film and 'Borat' had the biggest box-office opening weekend for any film that opened in fewer than a thousand theaters. But I personally didn't like it.
I was a big fun of Cohen's 'Da Ali G Show', and expected to love the film as much as every review I read seemed to. Sadly, I think the hype didn't help my viewing.
People are now calling Cohen a comic genius for playing on the ignorance of the American people (I'll admit, I thought Kazakhstan was a fictional place before this film came out) and putting them in outrageously uncomfortable situations and using their ignorance to trap them and reveal true bigotry and xenophobia. Cohen has been nominated for a Golden Globe award in the category of 'Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy'. Alright, but I suspect that nomination comes more from the popularity of the film than the weight of Cohen's performance. Really, 'Borat' and Cohen's 'mocumentary' style cannot be hailed as comic genius; not when the film involves a lengthy naked man wrestle between Borat and his overweight and hairy manager, Azamat (Azamat Bagatov). Really, 'Borat' may be amusing, eye-opening, and will definitely elicit a laugh or two, but what Cohen does is no more comic genius than what the Jackass boys do, eating yellow snow and such. It's all for cheap laughs... and when you've heard about all the outrageousness and read descriptions of certain scenes that have now landed Cohen a few lawsuits, watching "Borat: Cultural learning's of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan" becomes a pretty hollow experience. I feel like I laughed more just hearing and reading about the film than when I actually sat down and watched it.