A Funny American Adventure But Poor Kazakhstan!

Rating: Null/10 (12 December 2008)

'Borat' is both a comical and offensive movie that tackles the 'American' way of thinking with a touch of humour. The title character's take on pretty much every sensitive issue such as Judaism, homosexuality, feminism, prostitution, racism, fanaticism and ignorance. The film balances its portrayal of Americans quite well: There are the kind hearted who treat Borat with kindness (The Jewish Couple), there are those who threaten to use violence when he attempts to hug them (The New Yorkers), those who look down upon him (The Texans), those who in a split second turn against him (the rednecks)... But, Borat's interaction is conducted with a sense of comedy. The humour is crude, explicit, disgusting and even brutal at times but there are a number of sequences that had me laughing out loud such as Borat's experience with the 'gypsy', the feminist group, the well-meaning Jewish couple, the bear... The Borat-Luenell track is among the sweetest moments. I think what the film tries to remind us is that people should lighten up and not take everything too seriously. While I enjoyed most of the American adventure, I did not like how poor Kazakhstan was 'torn to shreds'. A make-belief country could have easily been done with instead of having to offend an already existing country. As stated earlier, some of the 'comic' tracks are a bit too far fetched till the point of being revolting like the hotel nude fight between Borat and Azmat. Thus, this brings the film down a notch in my view.