One to miss

Rating: 2/10 (10 March 2007)

I hardly know where to begin with this movie. I went in with high expectations, considering how so many seemed to be raving about how hilarious it was. Also, I was curious because the movie seemed to ignite some litigious activity from some of it's unwitting participants. After viewing, I can certainly understand why. It was pretty evident that many, if not all of the people he encounters are unaware of the joke being played on them in this make-believe documentary. It is evident when you see these people respond with very real outrage, disgust, and hurt, that they were unwittingly duped into being victims, as Borat seems to go far out of his way to be as tedious and offensive as possible to nearly everyone he meets, with the exception of a prostitute, and a motor home of traveling drunken misogynists. It's amazing that Sacha Baron Cohen managed to stay in character, in spite of putting himself in real danger of his own personal safety because of his antics in the subway and on the sidewalks of New York City, or at the Rodeo, after singing lyrics obviously designed to be deeply offensive to Americans to the tune of the American national anthem. It seemed as though the viewer of the film was also targeted with the joke; I found a few scenes so distasteful to me personally, that I winced or turned away altogether. The scene involving a naked fight with his "producer" was something I did not want to see then, and hope never to see the likes of again. There were some very funny parts woven into all of this, but the humor turned sour for me when I realized that innocent people were duped, and being made fools of through much of it. Obviously, the intent here was the flagrant disregard of any standard of decency, or political correctness. Was Pamela Anderson in on the joke, when Borat tries to take her by force at a public autograph signing, and make her his "wife?" If not, he was very lucky he didn't do some serious jail time over that foolish stunt. So all in all, a great movie...NOT!!! Seriously, unless vulgar sophomoric humor is your thing, this movie is one to pass up.