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Movie Reviews, & Film Industry Commentary
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2006 – R – 84 min.
Director: Larry Charles
Primary Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Kenneth Davitian, Jane Sanguinetti Luenell, Pamela Anderson, Pat Haggerty, Alan Keyes
Stars *** (of 5)
Popcorn *** 1/2 (of 5)
Film Type(s): Comedy, Mocumentary, Foreigner in U.S.
Synopsis: Kazakhstan’s Information ministry sends their top TV Reporter, Borat Sagdiyev (Cohen), to New York with his cameraman and his Producer, Azamat Bagatov (Davitian), in this Mocumentary from British Comedian Cohen. When Borat develops an obsession for ‘Baywatch’ in his hotel room and receives word his overbearing wife has died, he hijacks his crew to go to California to propose to Pamela Anderson. He stops many times on their road trip to see what the ‘American Way’ means to different people. Along the way, he has encounters with real people, goes to rodeos, into peoples homes, buys a used ice cream truck, and gets a bear (“for protection”) and reports on these things back to Kazakhstan. With the exception of Cohen and Davitian, everyone in this film is ‘playing’ themselves.
Review: Sacha Baron Cohen is a mad scientist. He has some good ideas, but his way of going about it is quirky to say the least. This film is filled to the brim with jokes, planned and improvised, but the problem is that for every belly laugh there is another joke happening at the same time that causes you to cringe. Part of what has made other “Mock-Docs” like This is Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind so popular is that while largely improvised, they did re-shoots using the best takes and everyone was in on it. Cohen’s Kazakhstani TV Reporter Borat is actually one of the three personas he used on his HBO program “Da Ali G Show” and comes off in poor taste and not a little pretentious when one considers that Cohen is a very literate British Comic who is just playing dumb to sucker people into saying things they would never say otherwise (No matter how racist, bigoted, homophobic, and Anti-Semitic). His deliberate deception of Americans, while providing a razor sharp mirror at ourselves, is also very one sided and insulting. Very few segments come across very well and mainly seem to be single takes, without consideration for editing. Some segments are funny and well done, such as talking with Alan Keyes about a Gay Pride Parade, a series of mishaps involving Borat’s Producer, Azamat (Davitian), and a bear, hitching a ride with drunk frat guys in an RV, and Borat’s ‘proposal’ to Pamela Anderson. Some segments, such as singing the Kazakhstani National Anthem at a Rodeo and being a dinner guest in the South, often end with booing and threats to ‘Call the Police’. Overall, this is a brilliant 22 minutes padded (mostly at the front) with another hour’s worth of silly drivel. The Borat Vs. Azamat wrestling match, while horrifying at first, is a riot and proves to be the film’s turning point. In case it’s not obvious, this film is banned in Kazakhstan. No Pamela Anderson’s were hurt in the making of this film.
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