Ruined by Crap Filler Material

Rating: 5/10 (3 November 2006)

I just got back from a midnight showing of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and here is my review: Crap.
This movie is bad. Now don't get me wrong, I loved the Borat clips we've been used to seeing from his Ali G show, it's just that this movie falls victim to the same pitfalls of Sacha's last movie Ali G Indahouse. That is, to involve itself with a spaced out simple minded and juvenile storyline, completely ruining the movie's main character.
The strength of Sacha's Borat character is his impromptu conversations with the 'man on the street'. When Borat is interviewing unwitting subjects on camera, it's downright hilarious, but when he delivers his lines to willing participants, it's downright dumb. And unfortunately, there is just way too much of that in this movie.
I don't need to see Borat making faces while calling his neighbor an as*hole, his bear scaring off children, or Borat pretending to capture Pamela Anderson with a bag. It just doesn't work. All those scenes come across as cheap, poorly written and acted crap about as entertaining as an episode of Save by the Bell and as unfunny and unconvincing as Police Academy 4. There is far too much of this crap in the movie, and it takes away from the few real interviews we get to see.