Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Plot synopsis:
Borat Sagdiyev is a TV reporter of a popular show in Kazakhstan. The movie opens when Borat is in his hometown of Kusak in Kazakhstan. He is introducing the entire town to the documentary movie he is going to be filming. There's people like the town mechanic / abortionist, the town rapist, his annoying neighbor, his wife Oxana, and so on and so forth. Borat also talks about his home and his hobbies. Hobbies include ping pong, which he plays rather poorly, and traveling to capital city where he watches women as they do their business. Borat takes you through his home where you meet his wife Oxana and his sons Huey and Lewis, and introduces us to his annoying neighbor Yusuf. Borat and Yusuf have been engaged in a game of coveted goods, where everything Borat gets, Yusuf attempts to get as well, but since Yusuf doesn't have the money that Borat has, everything Yusuf buys is of significantly less quality.Borat is hailed as a hero in his town as he is contracted by the government of Kazakhstan to travel to America to make a documentary which will bring together, hopefully, the cultures of America and Kazakhstan. Borat is to travel to America with his most venerable producer Azamat Bagatov, who will handle all the behind the scenes work of this documentary. After a rather lengthy flight with multiple stops and connections, Borat finally arrives in New York City. On the subway to his hotel, his pet chicken escapes his bag and wrecks havoc on the subway. Borat's attempts to introduce himself to the native New Yorkers is also a complete failure.At the hotel, Borat attempts to bargain with the hotel owners about his negotiated room rate, only to be met with another failure as the hotel has a set rate in which it can rent rooms out. He has apparently never been in an elevator which he thinks is his actual hotel room. The next series of footage shows Borat attempting to integrate his life into New York City. Unfortunately he finds the natives aren't as friendly as they are in his native Kazakhstan.The next day Borat meets with a humor coach. The coach attempts to tell Borat about everything that he needs to know to be funny. Borat's version of humor and the humor coaches' version of humor don't exactly mix. The next interview finds Borat as the only male in a group of feminists. There, the humor he learned from the humor coach, and the feminists' version of humor again don't exactly mix. While at the hotel, Borat is learning about American television. There while flipping through the channels he stumbles upon an American television show called "Baywatch". He is immediately smitten with the show's star, one Pamela Anderson, who is unlike any Kazakh woman he has ever seen. While at the hotel Borat receives news that his wife has died in a horrible accident. He's grateful because he remembered shortly before he left that she threatened him with castration if he cheated on her. He then is seen leaving packing his things and wants to leave New York. He then convinces his producer Azamat that in order to see the real America they need to leave New York for greener pastures. Azamat isn't entirely convinced and has received threats from the Kazakh government that they need to do all their filming in New York or else. Borat convinces Azamat otherwise.Since Borat doesn't know how to drive he enrolls in a driving course and becomes very friendly with driving instructor, but his behavior behind the wheel takes things a bit too far. Borat is then seen at a GM dealer. He is asking the dealer what to do to buy the vehicle he needs to complete the cross country road trip. The dealer explains that the car he needs, as well as one he needs to attract women, is a Corvette or a Hummer H2. But the high price tag alienates Borat and Azamat. Borat decides they need something much less expensive. The dealer obliges and sells Borat a former ice cream truck that's worth $750. They then set about heading across the country.Their first stop is a news cast in North Carolina. There Borat manages to be the center of attention, while humiliating the weatherman, who can't stop laughing as Borat walks on stage in the middle of the broadcast. Their next stop is Washington, DC where Borat engages in a group of individuals who are much friendlier than they were in New York City. Upon meeting with Republican leader Alan Keys, Borat is shocked to learn that he unwittingly participated in a gay pride parade. Borat and Azamat quickly high tail it to their next destination - South Carolina. While in South Carolina, Borat and Azamat attend a rodeo. There, Borat is asked to sing the US national anthem which ends rather poorly when Borat attempts to integrate the Kazakh national anthem with the US national anthem. The next stop takes Borat and Azamat to a yard sale. There Borat thinks that the host of the yard sale is a gypsy but in fact all the stuff that they're selling came from inside their home. Borat finds another sign that they are destined to go to California to meet Pamela Anderson when he discovers a book about Baywatch. He then takes the book and he and Azamat high tail it to their next destination.Their next stop takes them to Atlanta. There they get lost off the freeway looking for a place to stay for the night. Borat meets a group of "gangstas" who teach him their ways and means. Borat and Azamat head to a rather upscale Marriott Hotel. Borat tries the gangsta's methods and immediately gets kicked out of the hotel. So the next place they go to stay is a bed and breakfast outside of the city. Unfortunately for Borat, the place is run by an elderly Jewish couple. He and Azamat are scared and immediately begin thinking of excuses to leave the establishment. Borat is still freaked from their visit to the Jewish run bed and breakfast that they stayed in. So much that he feels that they need protection. Borat and Azamat then decide to deal with a shady vendor who specializes in zoo animals and sells Borat and Azamat their own bear which protects but also annoys them and winds up scaring a group of school kids who think they're driving a real ice cream truck.Borat decides while in Atlanta that he needs to learn about American culture. To do so Azamat has him attend a formal dinner party. Things go incredibly south when Borat manages to offend everyone in attendance. First by showing some unflattering pictures of his sons Huey and Lewis, and attempting to dispose of his business the Kazakhstan way. They finally have had it with him when Borat contacts his "date" who turns out to be a prostitute. He's then asked to leave the party. Borat and his new date Luenell, decide that they should go hit the town and go to a bar with a mechanical bull.The next stop takes them to Houston Texas. There, Borat is shopping at an antique store to buy a gift to present to his new bride Pamela. Borat asks the owner about their obsession with the Confederate flag and secession which they claim is a part of southern heritage. He winds up clumsily crashing into most of the objects in the store and gets kicked out. While at the hotel, Borat catches Azamat with his Baywatch magazine doing unspeakable acts with it, and he and Borat get into a massive fight that ends with them crashing an executive convention completely naked.Azamat leaves - leaving Borat with only his return ticket and the chicken. Borat is depressed that he will be unable to complete the journey and may even wind up getting stranded in Houston. He drives as far as he can on what's left of the ice cream truck's gas. Thankfully he manages to hitchhike across the country with a group of college fraternity brothers. They then proceed to get really drunk. Borat tells them about his quest to marry Pamela Anderson. The guys show Borat her sex tape and he's now completely freaked out. He then leaves the Winnebago and winds up sleeping outside in a parking lot. There, while starting a bonfire with the Baywatch magazine, he accidentally incinerates his return ticket and lets his pet chicken go.He's now in Phoenix, Arizona. What he steps into next turns out to be a Pentecostal gathering at a huge mega church. There's even political figures involved in the large mass. After listening to the key note speakers which include a US Congressman, anti-evolution activists, and multiple judges and state senators, Borat is then baptized and joins the church. He then catches a ride out to Hollywood. The long journey is almost over. While in Hollywood, Borat manages to reunite with Azamat who's making some additional money doing character work in the tourist areas. Azamat is still angry about what happened in Houston but tells Borat he wants to complete the documentary and return to Kazakhstan and forget this entire trip ever happened. We also learn the fate of the bear that they acquired for security purposes.Azamat manages to track down Pamela Anderson. She's doing a DVD signing at the Virgin Records store in Orange, California. They go to the mall and Borat is first in line. He attempts to propose to Pamela Anderson - the traditional Kazakhstani way which involves a large, decorated sack he tries to throw over in an attempt to kidnap her, but she is completely freaked out by the proposal and runs off. Borat chases her out the back of the store and is finally tackled by security guards and arrested. Borat comes to the realization that true love is found where you least expect it. He and Azamat head back to Atlanta, and get a bus ride thanks to Borat's new connections with the Arizona mega church, where Borat reunites with Luennell, and wants her to come to Kazakhstan with him. She happily accepts the offer.Several months later the documentary is complete and Borat is back in his village of Kusak. He's a national hero now because the documentary was successful and has made Kazakhstan more appealing on an international stage. Borat introduces his new wife Luennell, who he married some time after the documentary was completed. And things have improved since then. He has spread the religion of Christianity to most of Kazakhstan, and he managed to up the game against his neighbor Yusuf, who it seems can only afford the iPod Mini, where Borat has purchased a full iPod. He then gets the village together and says thank you for watching the movie and goodbye. The movie ends with the Kazakhstan national anthem.

Tags: comedy, boring, adult comedy, bleak, cult, flashback, humor, satire, romantic, entertaining

Review:
Sacha Baron Cohen comes to America in the guise of Borat Sagdiyev and wreaks his own brand of Kazakhi havoc in this very very funny film.In our age of uber-political correctness, "Borat" comes sweeping through like a brisk and refreshing wind, completely bounding over every cultural taboo we've erected around ourselves.
The film's sweetest (and most unexpectedly so) moments come from Borat's befriending of a black prostitute.Of course, this is a carefully crafted work of fiction, and Cohen only lets his audience see what he wants them to see.
But the movie does make Americans look like a bunch of awfully self-important, uptight stiffs, and I've been to enough places in this country and met enough people to realize that the way events play out in this film (even if they are manipulated or staged) probably come very close to the real thing.Thank God for movies like "Borat." If nothing else, they remind us that our cultural boundaries only matter as much as we let them, and that all of the fears that govern political correctness are mostly ungrounded.
Da Ali G Show was an incredibly original variety/reality show featuring Cohen in three roles including Borat (whom is the main character of the movie).
All I will tell you is that Borat travels across the country from New York to L.A. doing such crazy stunts as taking a dump in front of the Trump Towers, publicly masturbating in front of a NYC Victoria's Secret store, singing an Anti-American Kazakhstan National Anthem at a rodeo in Nebraska, buying weapons to protect himself against 'the jews' (whom he believes were responsible for 9/11 Terror attacks) and trying to kiss just about every guy he sees, which brings about homophobia in many of the real people featured in the movie who don't know it's a movie.
If this is disgusting, then Charles Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" was disgusting, "because it glorified Adolf Hitler, and expressed hatred against the Jews".If you want to feel sad about how stupid, clumsy and ignorant still many people are in the corners of the world, you should watch this movie to open your eyes.
Sacha Cohen is so ridiculously consistent and never seems to break character, even when he turns an entire rodeo against him in less than 5 minutes.I really don't want to speak anymore of the film, because part of the beauty of it is being surprised by what you see on the screen.
I say this as a die-hard Monty Python fan  not because the humour is on the same level or follows the same guidelines (in fact, the common ground is here is that it follows no guidelines)  but because both comedy teams mask their sketches in a feature film, passing them off as a story when it becomes glaringly clear that the latter is an elaborate pretext under which to have outrageous, absurdist and side-splittingly fun in a series of genius gags.Yet for all of Borat's subsequent disorganisation and warped narrative, we are first served a gorgeously condensed introduction to our character in his village in Kazakhstan.
When I was informed the film used many candid takes, I can only hope the unreasonably creepy Jesus convention was *not* one of them.In conclusion, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)" is a towering comedy achievement.
Quebec Rating:13+ Canadian Home Video Rating:14A(should be 18A)I rented Borat after hearing about what a funny comedy it was.2006 was a great year for comedies.Borat and Clerks II are in my opinion among the funniest films of all time.This movie is hilarious!
It is a bit offensive but it is very funny.The main character is hilarious and a bit racist to Jewish people(in real life Sacha Baron Cohen the guy that played Borat is Jewish).The film is about a man who lives in Kazakstan.He is a news reporter in Kazakstan who goes to America to learn about the culture and also to find Pamela Anderson who he hopes to marry.Filled with many funny misadventures.Borat is a very funny movie you wont want to miss..
And for the most part, I think my original assumption was correct.Basically for the two people who have zero clue what the movie is about (despite it now being on DVD), Borat Sagdiyev (Cohen) is a Kazak journalist sent to the United States to observe the American way of life.
'Borat' is both a comical and offensive movie that tackles the 'American' way of thinking with a touch of humour.
Of course,me being a woman and having somewhat of a demented/sarcastic sense of humor I thought what the heck I should rent it and check it out.I like a movie that puts a smile on my face,makes me chuckle and think "wtf".This movie made ME LAUGH all through IT.
This movie isn't for someone who lacks humor and doesn't enjoy a good laugh."Can we make sexy party"P.S Kind of want to see it again,but I think you should see it NOW..
because you'll be left out, even though, obviously, you'd be a prime subject to illuminate the malady.This is one of the funniest movies ever made, right up there with "Waiting for Guffman" and "Team America." I don't understand people's limits when it comes to "ethnic" humor except to suspect their own racism makes it discomforting and unfunny for them.I'm sure these same people have parameters on which kinds of drama are acceptable to them as well, and I wonder if they are displeased when reading the newspaper that so many unsavory topics are covered.It's sad, really, when reality rankles your sensibilities..
The second best reporter of Kazakhstan, Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen), and his producer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) are sent by the Ministry of Culture of his country to New York, to prepare a documentary about "The American Way of Life".
If you open-minded and enjoy jokes, most of them offensive to conservative people and some minorities, you will love this film; otherwise, why spending your time?
for the benefits of his country Kazakhstan but the question raises; Shouldn't America and Americans also learn from simplistic countries such as Kazakhstan, for their own good and benefits?Just like in Michael Moore movies often is the case, Borat knows to put his finger on the right place and manages to show America how it really is.
It's funny, in the interviews it often is not Borat who says the most offensive things, it are the interviewees who do so, such as the rodeo-guy and the frat boys.But no, the movie is not all criticism.
It also is hard to imaging that all those people actually took this silly talking and looking character so seriously as they did in this movie all the time.
It's also are the reasons why you can't really call this movie a fake documentary or mockumentary.What I loved about the "Da Ali G Show", in which Borat often made an appearance, was that it was improvised, real, often had no point and was all about the responses of the other person on the Sacha Baron Cohen characters.
It also again raises the question of how much of the movie is actually improvised and how much of it was planned, though I definitely believe that most of the interviews and Borat with other people were for real.
They often don't know how to cope with this odd talking and looking character from the far away and insignificant country of Kazakhstan.There are a couple of especially memorable sequences, such as when Borat and Azamat wrestle naked in their hotel room, after Azamat's 'hand-feast' and then start running naked through the hotel, elevators and eventually ending up wrestling naked in a convention room with hundreds of people in it.
There are a couple of more hilarious and memorable sequences but no one really matches up to that moment, that totally catches you completely off guard.It's all fast paced, which makes sure that you'll probably laugh your way non-stop trough this movie.A perfectly fun and amusing movie that also has some striking criticism, that could had used some less story and perhaps should had been more like the show.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
That was apparently in your face, raw humor, but rather subtle and genuine that could make you laugh and cry at the same time.This movie does not deserve to be called racist or offensive or comic or smart or anything.
Any 7 year old can make fun of people this way.I cannot comprehend why the North American public likes this low and childish humor, other than to think that most regular citizen born on this continent live within some boundaries and clichés that make them narrow minded.
Perhaps the people in this society that collectively attributed such a high rating to this movie have not been exposed enough to hardship and tragedy in order to be able to use real humor to laugh at itself other than using gross jokes.I was upset, angry and frustrated after seeing this movie and I profoundly regret every penny I spent on the ticket and if there was any way to recover them I would be first in line.
Seeing an actual amputee in a poor Romanian Gypsy village with a gay rubber fist taped to his forearm - has exactly the same humor, as making a joke of the starving people of Nigeria.What we see in this film is that Cohen shows how much he hates Eastern Europeans, including Polish people, Romanians, Gypsies, and how much he hates Southern people, republicans, and Christianity, and virtually all American people.
Cohen defended Borat as being a satire of how ignorant Americans are of other countries and their cultures, and even don't know where Kazakhstan is.
I think I saw a similar plot in Britney Spears's Crossroads movie (also not good).Borat makes a fool of himself in several social situations including dinner parties, feminist meetings, rodeos, church gatherings, mortgage meetings, etc.
For too much of the films brief length, Cohen tries to shock viewers into contributing to the whirlwind of controversy the movie became, and by and large the excessive graphic nudity detracted from the flights of brilliance; what could have became one of modern film's most offbeat and unusual fight scenes became a cheap and blatant attempt at gross out theatrics.Though the pseudo-documentary may play the cheap cards a little too often considering Mr. Cohen's immense comedic talent, the foolish emotional arc that drove this tiny plot added a needed angle to Borat's film incarnation, helping flesh out much of the one-dimensionality.
With movie tickets being as expensive as they are, I hate to waste them, but after 40 minutes of watching slapstick, tasteless toilet humor, not to mention the most appalling and offensive anti-semitism I have EVER seen in a film, I walked out.
Yes, Mr. Cohen, I see how Americans can be racist, sexist, ignorant, homophobic "ass hole." I see how by pretending to be an anti-semitic, naive, uneducated reporter from a backwards country whose name most Americans can't even pronounce, you induce your interview subjects to reveal their own prejudices.So what?The fact is, I've seen this done many times before -- to much greater effect and without the blatant mean-spiritedness demonstrated in almost every frame of the film.
As a matter of fact, the first hour is a non-stop laugh-fest: I have yet to see another movie that manages to blend slapstick & toilet humor as well as social criticism of the more degenerated states of America into a funny experience as this.
Instead, the abject stupidity of the lead character (which is vaguely disguised as cross-cultural confusion) is used as an excuse to create a variety of absurd situations which, though sometimes amusing, are so firmly anchored in stereotypes themselves that the film's critique of stereotypes ends up doing the exact same thing as the lead character - trying very hard to do something good, but doing the exact opposite instead.Borat (Sasha Cohen) is a native of Kazakhstan (which is a real place - 9th largest country in the world - landlocked and nestled between Asia and Europe).
if i could vote -10 i would, but i can't, so i'll give it 1 star and believe me that's 1 star to many, the film starts out quite funny in "Kazakhstan" but slowly becomes nothing more then a hunt for Pamela Anderson.after thirty minutes i wondered if it was going to get better, sure enough, it got worse, the childish masturbation scene made me cringe more then laugh, not because i'm uncomfortable with seeing it, more because it signaled a total derailment of the film.
At first, maybe i could consider funny some of his remarks, but when he went to USA to scare people, i was just sitting and not understanding where and when to laugh.I don't get it, do you Americans laugh from 'borat' or from yourself for being so stupid?!.
I do not know if it was top 10 worst movie material, but it was close.Combine that with the fact that my expectations were high, since everyone was raving about how hilarious it was - I heard many people saying things like "funniest movie of all time".
Possibly, I laughed out loud once, and chuckled a couple times, but mostly, I just sat there waiting for it to get funny instead of stupid.Again, for some reason, people vote for a "trendy" movie that was really, really bad..
Like Hilton, Borat is an embarrassing monstrosity of a movie (the worst I've seen in MANY YEARS) that has gained in popularity not because it is good, has a message, or is even slightly funny, but simply because it caters to the lowest common denominator- idiot teenagers.
twice) is to see people's reactions to Sasha Cohen's outrageous ideation and behavior.The two funny scenes were both very short (no spoilers here, I will let you find them for yourself if you can stomach this movie).
Since this movie is probably the last we will see of Borat it's a shame he didn't come up with a new edge.Sacha Baron Cohen must have the biggest balls in the whole world to do what he does though.
"Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan" is genuinely ground-breaking cinema as the most gratuitously offensive work I have seen in over 40 years of film viewing - and yet it is brilliantly inventive in its politically-charged humour with endless visual and verbal gags that hit so many targets right between the eyes.
I found it really funny and my wife thought it hysterical, at one point (the naked fight sequence) being in danger of stopping breathing.British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has a huge success here with his portrayal of a Kazakhstan television presenter making a documentary on his examination of American culture and his search for Pamela Anderson.
Ads stating "The funniest movie ever!" are a total trumped up shill/fraud by people who stand to gain from it and are as low grade as this scummy slime of a film.I know that mental children of all ages who liked it a lot("Oh, my god!")will read this and disagree, but this was not written for them but for older, smarter and much wiser souls who may be wondering about whether they should spend a couple hours of their lives on some movie entertainment by seeing Borat.
The funniest part of the movie is that most Americans (admittedly including myself) couldn't tell Borat from a real Kazakhstani or anyone else from the mid-east.The same reaction of laughter would probably come from a Kazakhstani who was watching a French man dressed up like Micheal Jordan impersonating a Kazakhstani.
The device itself, or the fact that real bees accepted it as one of their own?That's the sort of question that crossed my mind when I watched "Borat." Even though Sacha Baron Cohen dresses up as a fictional character, he takes this character out into the real world and films the reactions of people who assume he is for real.
But I bet you've never seen a film where the star actually pulls the prank--for real--on an unsuspecting politician.Looking back on the movie now, I realize that there are some principles of comedy at work.
This movie is not like that he his cruel to the people he is suppose to me making fun of, not funny.I am not a Kazakh, nor have I ever been there, but I could see why they are not happy.
Sacha Baron Cohen brings his best creationthe Eastern European TV presenter Boratto the big screen in 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan', a movie which follows the (somehow) likable Jew-hater (accompanied by his friend Azamat Bagatov) as he makes his revealing documentary about life in the USA.Cohen cleverly (and rather bravely) uses his naive, racist and sexist Kazakhstani character to expose the bigots and idiots that often give the US a bad name, whilst simultaneously delivering some of the funniest cinematic moments in recent memory.Whether it is an average Joe on a subway train, a group of frat boys on a road-trip, or a room-full of people at a seminar, absolutely no-one is safe from Borat as he reveals a country brimming with hatred, distrust, and intolerance: it's a sad moment for the human race when Borat politely introduces himself to a stranger, only to be met with threats of violence.Of course, Borat's style of comedy is not going to be to everybody's taste: the more conservative of viewers may balk at the toilet humour and bad taste gags; rednecks and religious extremists will more than likely froth at the mouth at particular moments; and many Eastern Europeans probably won't like Cohen's portrayal of one of their own.
I'm perfectly aware that Cohen is Jewish , and that he's really making fun of the idiots who agree with Borat , but that still doesn't make it funny.The jokes are so predictable they can be spotted way before they are executed.