Great Fun & Great Comedy, Hiding in a Mediocre Movie

Rating: 3/10 (4 November 2006)

I agree with most of the posted reviews - this movie is hilarious! Sasha Cohen's portrayal of Borat, a prejudiced, ignorant but well meaning Khasakstanian reporter is brilliant. He never loses the character, dealing with every situation as if such an absurd character could be real.
The strengths of the movie are the scenes where Borat's portrayed ignorance or prejudice combines with the hateful, stupid or ignorant reactions from the people he encounters. Sasha asks a gun dealer advice on a weapon 'good to kill a Jew' - the dealer suggests a 9mm. In another scene a rodeo cowboy agrees with Borat that homosexuals should be locked up and killed. Where Sasha brings out the ugly truth and combines it with his own comedy, he's at his best.
The weak scenes are when Borat is with people who are open and accepting of him as a foreigner, tolerant of his failures and attempting to help him. One scene has a dinner party host trying to instruct Borat on the use of a toilet; in another a group of black youths instruct Borat on how to look and talk like them. These scenes are funny, but funny at the expense of people helping a stranger. In one scene an angry feminist walks away from Borat - Sasha's attempts to goad her having failed. Borat's lines are funny, but the scene doesn't really work.
The movie is a series of independent scenes - each a new encounter for Sasha to showcase Borat's ignorance. While each scene is funny, as a whole there is no real progress - the end of the movie is no funnier for having watched the start. The plot happens, but really is included as a vehicle to change the locations of the scenes, not a means to evolve the characters.
It's great comedy, but a mediocre movie.