Amusing, but shocking

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2006)

The movie starts off with some quite shocking scenes which make the viewer wonder what society is turning into. Being a European I consider New York, or any of the other 'progressive' US metropolitan area's as liberal and easy going. The first half hour of the movie was like a shock and awe campaign. If this is how people react to someone acting friendly, how do they act when someone is not being so 'friendly'. And NY isn't representative for the US, this was quite a culture-shock to me. not wanting to generalize but when people in NY act like this how is it in the rest of the US (and Europe too, since society hardens to the point that even looking at someone might get you beaten up). The other part, luckily, focuses on comedy, but not enough comedy to get over the shock from the first part. Borat stirs up the debate about cultural relativism. you can just beat up anyone different, but also go too far in accepting anything weird or, as shown in one scene, go ahead with life and just ignore anything 'strange'. Thumbs up for Cohen, would love to see another movie like this but, on the other hand, this movie is a one of a kind, copying an idea like this will most likely result in a movie not as good as the original.