High Five!

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2008)

I had never seen 'Da Ali G Show' before watching this movie and had no prior exposure to Sacha Baron Cohen. I only knew what I saw from the trailers. Borat Sagdiyev (Cohen) is a reporter from the nation of Kazakhstan who is sent to America to learn as much as possible in an effort to improve his home nation. What follows is one of the most hilarious movies I've seen. I could NOT stop laughing throughout the course of this movie when I saw it for the first time. Of course, not everyone is going to like this film. In fact, most of the people I've watched it with can't stand it. They either find the character of Borat too obnoxious/annoying or they are bothered in some way by the content. Oh well, it's not for everyone.
The film is hilarious, but the humor is mostly derived from shock value. Unfortunately, that means that repeated viewings lose some of their luster because you know what to expect. The real comedy comes from the reactions of those that Borat encounters on his trip across America. You can tell that SOME situations have to have been staged but a good majority seem like sincere (and funny) reactions to Borat's foreign behavior. Some articles that I've read claim this movie acts as a social commentary on the behaviors of Americans in relation to a culture they don't understand. I can see how that can be true...to an extent. Then again, Borat does some pretty crazy things, things that go beyond a mere culture clash, in this film to justify some of the responses he received.
My absolute favorite segments had to have been the scene with the driving instructor and the scene with the frat boys in the RV. Despite Borat's oddball (and occasionally illegal) behavior in the driving school scene, the driving instructor took it in stride and let it roll off his back...which I thought made it that much funnier. As for the frat boys, they just made complete morons out of themselves. Both of these scenes resulted in lawsuits brought up against the production, though I don't know that either made it very far.
On one final note, if you want a good example of American intolerance in the film (WITHOUT goading from Borat), be sure to check out the friendly advice given to Borat by the rodeo organizer before Borat performs the national anthem.