Shallow, cheap comedy masquerading as social satire...not without its laughs though

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2006)

Don't get me wrong, there were moments in this film where I laughed heartilyproper deep belly laughs  but there were plenty of others where I was just shaking my head with embarrassment, and indeed a few moments when I was just rolling my eyes out of boredom. There is little new here to offer people who are already well acquainted with Borat from his TV shows. The same lines , the same 'set-ups', the same inappropriate Polaroid's of his family are all reused. Some of the comic subtlety with which Sacha Baron Cohen has portrayed his Kazakh creation in the past is dispensed with here in an attempt to shock and outrageit's a bit of a cop-out.
Don't let this film fool you into thinking it is a work of potent satire, its not that clever, but unfortunately some feel safe enough with this excuse to chortle at the notion of a black man being referred to as a 'chocolate face'. Borat does successfully elicit offensive views from many of those being interviewed, but they don't seem to need much encouragement. One does have to admire Sacha Baron Cohen's 'chutzpah' when watching this film (I'm thinking especially of the rodeo sequence). He is undoubtedly a talented comic actor, some of the nuances of Borats character are so hilariously and convincingly observed as to fool his hapless interviewees into all sorts of bizarre behaviour, though, like I mentioned before, too often and too quickly in this film does he resort to a shocking crudeness for his laughs.
If you intend to watch this film and are not familiar with the TV show, nor this breed of humour you may well be shocked and/or you may well laugh uncontrollably, but trust me the more intelligent amongst you and those with a better developed sense of humour will find many parts of this film objectionable and cheap.
The central premise of Borat  i.e. exploiting people's hospitality to effectively mock them  makes me tad uneasy too, not to mention the rather offensive and undoubtedly baseless caricature of Kazakhstanis. If you've read the reviews of this film you'd be forgiven for thinking you are about to watch one of the funniest films ever madeand you will be disappointed.