Borat

[sass_in_the_pants]

So, I went to see it last week.

There is nothing that is okay about that movie. It will rot your soul. It will only make you a worse person on the inside. And it is so funny I nearly peed my pants. I'm going to see it again on Monday.

Did anyone else see it? What did you think?

A few points of reflection after seeing it:

1. Don't believe everything you see. After the movie, my husband said he had lost all faith in humanity. I told him to take this as seriously as those reality tv shows. No one says what they REALLY think when cameras are rolling. Alot of what you see is as staged as anything straight from Hollywood, so don't take it too seriously.

2. I'm very mad at Sasha Cohen. Because the rest of the world didn't think we were already a bunch of assholes, so he went and found half a dozen people to serve as his marks, and now if there were ANY doubt that Americans were assholes, if there were anyone out there who said "Aw, those Yankees, they're not so bad", well, now they're marked as assholes, too. Great. Because travelling to France as an American wasn't hard enough already.

3. In case you missed it, he's speaking Hebrew during the movie. If you see the movie and you know this, this makes it even funnier.

[paradox]

funny.

as.

hell.

saw it yesterday. im still laughing. :laughing

the wrestling scene was just WRONG!

[Vampyro]

That's one of the movies i really wanna see given when i can afford to... that and jackass 2, i've not seen that one yet either.. :(

I've been broke so long i forgot what those green paper rectangles are called...

Anyone know a site where i might be able to pirate that movie and put it on my computer?

[creatureofthenyte]

I have not seen the movie and have no plans to.

I'm sure alot of people will like it though.

Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.

I do think that there may be some funny parts to it perhaps. But for the most part, I think that character is completely ridiculous and moronic.

I'm sorry for bein a party pooper, but in my mind, Borat = Moron.

[Guest Game of Chance]

Haven't seen it yet, but I've been a fan of Da Ali G show for a couple of years now...

All of his characters are hilarious!

[Homicidalheathen]

Yo Ali G in dah hooouuusee! I gotta go see it too!

[kellygrrrrrl]

I saw it, love it.

Although, most of the material was already done on "Da Ali G. Show" on HBO

So I wasn't REAL suprised during the movie.

The commercials for the movie show all the best parts..... why do they do that?

[HipsterDufus]

Just saw it over the weekend. That wrestling scene... OMG. But I couldn't stop laughing in between the grimaces. Good stuff.

[torn asunder]

I saw it, love it.

Although, most of the material was already done on "Da Ali G. Show" on HBO

So I wasn't REAL suprised during the movie.

The commercials for the movie show all the best parts..... why do they do that?

if they advertised the boring stuff, nobody would go see it!!

[LuluVox]

I don't know how I feel about going to see it, especially after coming across articles like this:

[Paper Hearts]

^I agree with Lulu:

It is interesting how this movie was only to have a limited release in the United States (twenty-seven cities), and how that number was diminished (to fourteen cities), for Fox studio's fears that in sub-metropolitan areas of the US, some of the content of this film might be perceived as un-American, but after the film's successful debut, the number of cities to receive showings of "Borat" were then tripled. Never were the feelings of Kazakhs, Romanians, Homosexuals, etc (anyone else this movie may offend) considered by Fox studios; in fact, Fox has only worried about the backlash they may receive from traditional, rural United States [which in itself possibly justifies all humor in this movie where traditional America is the ass of jokes].

However, Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy has always been a sardonic critique of the world, through the invention of several television journalist characters a shocking few (mainly members of the audience) would immediately recognize as extreme stereotypes. One begins laughing at S Baron Cohen's characters but finishes by laughing at the people he interviews--he uses these stereotypes (these characters of his) to expose certain chauvinism; his subjects believe they are dealing with someone really stupid when actually they are being taken advantage of.

The character Borat was first introduced to British, Irish and Australian audiences via BBC on a popular television series, years before either this movie or the last one and before the HBO/BBC series Da Ali G Show began in America. Through the first years of Da Ali G Show, Sacha Baron Cohen (a member of the Jewish community of England) traveled Great Britain and Ireland duping local celebrities, politicians, and even members of Great Britain's royal family, with identical methods as he employed in the United States to chump such familiars as former presidential economics advisor Charles Schultze, Andy Rooney, Pat Buchanan, Sam Donaldson, James Baker, Ralph Nader, Buzz Aldrin, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, General Brent Scowcroft, former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornberg, LAPD chief Daryl Gates, former EPA Administrator and New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman, and historian/author/"hair stylist" Gore Vidal: BBC media credentials and a television show were all he needed.

Sacha Baron Cohen accepted the contract from HBO which brought him to the United States, because he became too popular for his style to continue to be effective in the place it began--his interviews were always candid insights, which rely on his subjects being unaware that they are on a comedy show. Surprisingly, in contrast to this latest movie from Fox studios which exploits poor Romanians, the comedy in Sacha Baron Cohen's previous works only targeted subjects for faults they are actually guilty of...even through segments such as one which brought an entire population in a random American bar to sing a song with verse including lyrics such as:

Throw the Jew down the well~

So my country can be free

You must grab him by his horns

Then we have a big party

-I'm not convinced that Fox studios understands that it is not the true nature of Sacha Baron Cohen's jokes to laugh at blanket generalizations, but rather to laugh at those people who use and believe in such undue maxims...and simultaneously, I'm almost certain that Fox studios knows that all too well. I have a feeling about the "Borat" movie which I have never experienced in any of Baron Cohen's other works: I feel, for the most part, that I'm often simply a witness to a Jewish person insulting Muslims. Some of the humor in Borat (: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan), is too different for anyone who has experienced much of S B Cohen's past work, to not explore and try to link the disparity of some of the humor in the new film to the new studio. I have mixed feelings about Sacha Baron Cohen's latest. Albeit the three-hundred pounds man's testicles nesting on Borat's faux mustache during the wrestling scene (Greco-Roman style, in one of the most literal of senses) was really god damned funny to me, nonetheless I know that Americans are too frequently worse than many of their portrayals in this movie and so I almost want to assume that Fox studios realized that the success of this film depended on the appeal it would have with the type of people who normally would have been the targets of Sacha Baron Cohen's wit.

[Soulrev]

Ehh I've killed enough braincells by smoking pot. I got tired of that and I want to keep the ones I've got left. This movie would be like smoking pot again. I'll pass.

[Dubh Aingeal]

The commercials for the movie show all the best parts..... why do they do that?

If those were all the good points. Its definitely falls into the not gonna be seen section.

[Fierce Critter]

Saw it last night.

Eh. Shrug.

I've seen seasons 1 and 2 of the Ali G show on DVD, and Borat was my least favorite character.

Saw this because my husband heard it was really funny, and he really wanted to see it enough to convince me I did, too.

But upon leaving, we both were of the opinion that it wasn't that good. And definitely not what it was hyped to be.

I do think it's funny - and telling - when his character brings out the ugly prejudices of people and makes them look ridiculous.

But the "fish out of water/ignorant small-village foreigner" stuff really bores me and I don't find it all that funny.

The funniest part definitely is the wrestling scene. And while it wasn't flattering to fanatical/evangelist/fundamental Christians, the scene of him being "saved" had me wincing and laughing my head off (Fanatics of ANY kind scare me and I like to see them made fun of, I admit - that would go for religious fanatics, but as well as people like the hardcore Furries I'm meeting on Second Life, rolls eyes, as well as others).

Bottom line: I figured it wouldn't be that funny, and it wasn't. DVD viewing, maybe. Full price? We wasted our money, which is all the more painful because we only see full-priced movies maybe once a year, twice tops.

Tonight - Jackass 2 at the dollar show. That I'm DEFINITELY looking forward to.

[Vampyro]

Ok i finally seen it, and I have to agree wth Lulu on the artile she posted, they cheated them people bad, and sadly those people had a bad reputation (unfairly) to begin with. But there were parts of the movie I liked, and anyone that was in the film that was AMERICAN, has no right to complain I think. So what if those college kids got drunk, it was by their choice, and anyone should know that you always gotta be careful with what you say, so those college kids can only blame their own stupidity. There were parts in the movie I loved, like the church scene, this movie was funny overall to me though. And going on the church scene and other scenes, I wished it had more drastic pranks on the typical american assholes. This country really does need a wakeup call as to how facist we are. As for those people of the village though, anyone in their right mind would know better to think they're all peforming incest and abortions... come on now. But i still think that if anyone involed with producing the film has any self respect at all, they would have treated that village alot better (I mean, ALOT better) than just a measly £3 a peice. Great comedy, but they fucked alot of people making it.

[Homicidalheathen]

It was hellarious. I laughed the whole way through.

[Onyx]

As for those people of the village though, anyone in their right mind would know better to think they're all peforming incest and abortions... come on now. But i still think that if anyone involed with producing the film has any self respect at all, they would have treated that village alot better (I mean, ALOT better) than just a measly £3 a peice. Great comedy, but they fucked alot of people making it.

That makes me sick.

I really hope they win that lawsuit.

[sass_in_the_pants]

What's the lesson here, people?

(because there's always a lesson)

Don't go on film. Ever. Doing anything. Cuz you'll get effed, quite possibly by your own big dumb mouth.

Paris Hilton learned it, Pamela Anderson learned it, and now a couple of drunk frat boys learned it.

Oh, and interestingly, those frat boys who are sueing are saying that they were misrepresented in the movie.

Which a judge might believe.

Until he looks at their myspace pages.

Where they have pictures and quotes of them doing the exact same things.

Again with the not going on film.