Leave Sensibility at the Door

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2007)

This is it: the most outrageous, offensive, unbelievably hilarious movie that has come out in the last 100 years -- since the inception of movie-making itself. BORAT isn't just a film: it's the reinvention of comedy per se. Looking at one surreal scene unfold, splatter the screen with its sheer insanity, and then gleefully move on to yet another moment that manages to top the previous one (a hard thing to do in comedy since the majority of them have the mandatory peaks and valleys -- some with more valleys than peaks), is practically a health hazard. There were times when I had to grab my stomach because of the pain of so much laughter. One particular moment was the one when the children run towards the ice cream truck as a black bear comes out roaring through the window, effectively sending the kids screaming back in terror. Is it correct? Not quite, but that's what the movie is about -- skewering every belief we the viewer hold dear and never bothering to apologize. When Borat and his camera-man run away from the bed and breakfast in terror because they're Jews, it's Borat's own clueless belief that we're laughing at. This also takes front stage when Borat gets a lesson on how to go to the bathroom by some very ultra conservative folk who are blind to the surprise he has in store for them. If the movie slows down a little, it's only when Pamela Anderson -- the object of Borat's obsession -- appears. However, by then I was spent in laughter, and oddly enough, for such a balls-out funny movie, its ending was quite sweet. One of the best of 2006.