limp

Rating: 2/10 (15 March 2007)

I love the characters Ali G and Borat on Cohen's show. Both of them reveal painful truths about our cultures (Brit and American) by burying our hero in apparently ignorant characters that elicit authentic ignorance from real people. Cohen's character Bruno (who will have his own movie before long), a gay club-kid/fashionista, is much, much less interesting. When all you do as a straight comedian in lampooning a gay character is act like a shallow sissy, you're probably working something out for yourself (wink wink), but you're not entertaining me. All this character says to me is that Sasha Baron Cohen has some need to dress up and act like a sissy every now and then. (Let us know how that works out Sasha.) At any rate the Bruno character is infinitely staler than the other two.
The show was funny because it was smart. This movie is beneath me on both counts. By the time I rented it, the accolades had been piled so high, and the value of the concept so overstated, that it couldn't live up to the hype. I couldn't even finish this. The whole movie is set in motion when Borat decides he has to track down Pamela Anderson after seeing Baywatch. Oh stop... ha ha ha... my sides are splitting. The last time I heard something that funny, I fell out of my horseless carriage. Yeah it's actually that limp. Ensuing jokes are set up even limper.
"Borat" heads into shallow one-joke "SNL movie" territory very early. Much like Little Miss Sunshine it takes potshots at people we all already agree have poor values. There it was just the kiddy pageant set. Here everyone is an idiot.
So let's examine the naked wrestling scene that audiences found so amusing: Here's how I understand the offense-scale of these viewers: Gay sex is gross; but something which is ninety-five percent of the way to gay sex, involving simulated sex positions (analingus) with a repulsive obese man with a hairy back, a flabby white paunch, floppy man-boobs and droopy buttocks is a new height in humor? So actual sex performed by attractive guys, is more distasteful than simulated sex between repulsive ones. You'll have to show me how I reset my taste & values, so I can get my head around that one.
At one point Cohen almost breaks character when a fat black hooker he has used to humiliate herself and others, says his name correctly as they say goodnight. He registers a look that's more thoughtful than Borat should, remarking "You said my name right." The moment and the way it's played is already borderline, and then the movie cheesily underscores the scene with schmaltzy 'message' music.
The critics who raved over this are just so many squares who came to the Sasha Baron Cohen party late, but want credit for being hip. This is not a smart movie. I wouldn't even call it outrageous. It's the same limp movie that TV-to-film comedians have been making for three decades.
This is desperate. Most of you fell for it.