Nasty, brutish and unfortunately not short

Rating: 2/10 (12 December 2007)

Sacha Baron Cohen is a highly educated English Jew: the total opposite of the characters he plays. The film begins extremely well, with parodies of old Russian-style propaganda films and wildly absurd characters but quickly degenerates into a series of TV sketches, some of which are pointless, some insulting to the participants, and some just clumsy and amateurish. Those which do not fall into these categories are mostly unpleasant. There are moments of would-be pathos in order to soften us up. Even when very funny (and sometimes it is) it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. I suspect it is actually A FILM WITH A MESSAGE.