Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan (Larry Charles, 2006) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2007)

I wasn't into Sacha Baron Cohen's previous alter ego, rapper Ali G, at all; I didn't think I'd be drawn to this character (who has garnered as much admiration as contempt either), given his sexist nature  but, at least, it provides a wider range of targets and opportunities for controversy. Incidentally, the head-shaking reaction which usually greets Borat is ultimately more of a comment on his ostensibly cultured 'victims' than the unsophisticated hero himself.
The film itself is patchy but mercifully short  and, surprisingly, I found it to be genuinely inspired at times (even if its brand of savage no-holds barred satire has been more stylishly explored by Monty Python 35 years ago); besides, the dinner-table defecation was much better done by Luis Bunuel in an unforgettable scene from THE PHANTOM OF LIBERTY (1974)! Anyway, it generally plays like a live-action version of "South Park" (that series' creators, in fact, receive a special thanks during the end credits here).
Some scenes are undeniably uproarious  his rendition of the national anthem of Kazakhstan at a rodeo; the dinner sequence in a Southern household (mentioned above); the mayhem at an antique shop; and the lengthy nude fisticuff between Borat and his heavy-set manager (which is where the film really oversteps the threshold of grossness). However, other 'sketches' fall miserably flat  in particular, the entire Pamela Anderson episode (which actually takes about half the running-time!) is an embarrassment: this section includes Borat's meeting with a group of wasted kids in a trailer (which is how the hero gets wise to Anderson's marital status) and his eventual brush with a community of revivalist Christians.