It is funny but lets not pretend it is clever or has any wider social importance than providing some laughs

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2006)

In Kazakhstan one of the leading television personalities is reporter Borat Sagdiyev, who has covered the leading events in his wonderful country. However with many backward ways in their land, the Ministry of Information decide to send Borat to America with producer Azamat and a film crew. Their aim is to learn lessons from the US in order to return to make benefit Kazakhstan. However when Borat sees the television show Baywatch in his hotel room he becomes transfixed with CJ, aka Pamela Anderson and convinces Azamat that the documentary should be a road trip across the US, thus allowing him to get to California and find his love.
Hyped to the point of hysteria, I joined a packed Saturday night cinema to see this film, wondering what all the fuss was about. Before I continue it is important to note that I'm not trying to be part of a backlash or anything here, because I did actually find the film quite funny at times. However, while some professional reviewers have praised this for being a wonderfully intelligent commentary on society and so on, I struggled to see anything going on here past Jackass-style humour and lots of easy targets. To this end the film is at its funniest when we are simply laughing at what an outsider Borat is. Whether it is the imaginative ways that his narrow-minded ways manifest themselves (throwing money at bugs thinking they are shape-shifting Jews for example) or the looks on the faces of those people shocked by his behaviour, viewers not easily offended will find something to laugh about here.
And to me that is where the whole show begins and ends. Viewers keen to find it will claim that Cohen is using Borat to bring out the small-mindedness of others by using Borat as a trap to draw them out. However this only actually happens twice; once is a redneck with homophobic and anti-Muslim views (a redneck, what a surprise) and the other is a group of drunk students  neither very difficult targets and neither groups that I would expect much of in this regard. Conversely most people show how civil they are by being polite for as long as they can before eventually decided that they can take it no more  the crowd at the rodeo is one example but I could also cite the dinner party, the feminists and so on. With this the case I did wonder what the point was and concluded that there isn't one  there is no intelligent commentary to be made here and those seeing it are seeing it perhaps to justify laughing at racist etc humour. Because lets be honest, that what is so funny right? That Borat is so out of touch and shocking in his views and the way he is. I know that was what made me laugh many of the times, not because it was racist etc but mostly because he is imaginative with how he is. Of course this is not to say that the humour is still not racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and so on, because it is and I know that some sections of any audience will be laughing at it because of this. Likewise I know some will be uncomfortable with the humour and not care that it is done in an ironic, knowing sort of way. I fell somewhere in the middle; it was funny but I wish it had been a damn sight cleverer to justify the material.
Overall then this is a funny film but it really has very little beyond the Jackass approach of basically doing pranks (in this case Borat himself is the prank) on "unsuspecting" people. It did draw laughs from me on this level but I was disappointed that it went for such easy targets and really didn't get much from any of them (some contributions are mere seconds). God only knows why it is so highly rated by my fellow users here but then that is why I give little or no credence to the top 250 list!