The Film Review

Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) is off to America to make a documentary for the benefit of his home country, Kazakhstan. He jets off to New York, producer of the documentary (Ken Davitian) in tow. Along the way, Borat innocently offends many an unfortunate American he comes into contact with and falls for Baywatch star, Pamela Anderson (herself.) Before long he’s headed to California in a used Ice Cream van with a bear for company and carrying the absurd intention of marrying Pamela. Borat is a widely talked about comedy surrounded by a mountain load of hype that got me excited about the prospect of finally seeing it. Does it live up? I don’t think it does.

To start with, it‘s not the masterpiece people have labelled it as. Audiences have overreacted, largely because they found themselves laughing throughout its playing while in the company of an entourage. I can count plenty of movies that have had a similar effect on myself. The difference was that they didn’t come with a hyperbole of hype surrounding their release. If you’re looking for an example, I give you Gold Member (Austin Powers 3.) I went and saw it with a mate at the cinema and it had us both in stitches partly because it had the audience around us in stitches too. Though worthy of the watch, I don‘t count it as a very good movie. Come the second watch I was tired of its offerings, and by the third I detested it. To those of you who enjoyed Borat, I very much doubt you’ll go on to enjoy it a second time or at least, you won’t nearly as much as the first and that right there’s enough of a reason to restrict it to three and a half stars (out of five.) A really good movie’s got to have replay factor. It’s a must. Despite its short length, it felt much longer, such became the repetitive nature of it all. I know this would increase with a second watch, more so with a third and so on the cycle would painfully continue.

With the above paragraph, we briefly covered the length of the film. Going back to that, at under ninety minutes, it’s fair to consider Borat relatively short. That’s a good hand from Cohen. Had he dared to extend it any further, I’m pretty confident that it wouldn’t be receiving the praise it currently is. All the same, it still doesn’t hold up. Supposed shortness irrelevant, it drags on a great deal longer than it honestly should. I’ve heard many people mentioning that they had doubts over whether Borat could work as a full length film. It’s a regular sketch and that works to great effect but whether or not it could hold up for a grand total of eighty six minutes was truly in doubt. Many of these same people were convinced. I on the other hand was not. Clamp the best bits together and cut out much of the crap in between and you have yourself a very decent twenty minute watch. That would’ve worked. That would’ve made me laugh. But no, as a full length movie the gags soon become repetitive, overly so, and you’re waiting for it to end before it’s long begun.

For me, Borat was a let down and a disappointment. Expectancy played a large part in that. Often before seeing a film I’ll read some reviews. How else will I know what to watch, right? Well if a movie is raved about to no end then there’s obviously going to be some expectancy on my part for the movie in question to fulfil all that’s been said about it. Then every once in a while you get a true hyperbole of a movie. Everyone’s talking about it, you’ve heard just how good it is over and over again and you’re ridiculed for having yet to see it. Add to that a number of raving reviews (I’ve played witness to numerous sites that have awarded it top marks) and you’ve Borat in a nutshell pre my going to see it. I was excited. And ultimately, I watched Borat with the expectancy that I would enjoy it. As a comedy, not only would I laugh but it’d have me in hysterics. Trouble is, I did little more than raise a smile throughout its playing. There was one scene in fact (the naked wrestling between Borat and his pal, the producer) that had me laughing out loud. I wanted every scene to have me splitting my sides and I wasn’t because Borat just isn’t that overly funny. I can appreciate it’s something you’d laugh over with your mates by your side but its’ precious little more than that and there plenty of movies before Borat that would have the same effect. A true work of comical genius will be enough to have you in fits on your lonesome.

It’s not that I didn’t get Borat nor was it that I was offended. It quite obviously wasn’t intended to be serious and that’s good enough for me. For those who are offended, a don’t be so stupid is rightly in order. Maybe that’s a bit rich as none of the characters whom Borat comes into contact with really apply to me. I’m not Jewish, I’m not a woman, I’m not homosexual etc. and I’ve no problems with those who are (save women, who we should all agree, are only good in the kitchen.) I’m pretty sure though even if I were one of those peoples that I wouldn’t be offended because it’s a joke and very rarely do I find a joke and I’ve heard and told some downright nasties, that offends me. That’s not the problem. You could though make an argument to suggest that Cohen makes some easy targets for his humour and a character with a weird name and dodgy accent is all a bit too easy. But no, Cohen’s intentions seem more to do with highlighting the stupidity of anti-Semitism and what have you.

There was the whole it being staged to consider also. There’s just no fun in that. Stuff like Jackass is funny because it’s spontaneous. When they’re playing pranks on people said people are oblivious and the reactions are priceless. When it gets to a stage that they got recognized a lot they moved on to other countries such as Japan where they were practically unheard of and could catch a more unsuspecting and oblivious public. The reactions are the sort that you just can’t act. A lot of Borat feels false and while I’m told it’s not all staged, a great deal of it is and it’s hard to tell what is and isn’t so you’re often left feeling unsure. When it is prescripted at least do a job of pretending. With Borat there’s a lot of scenes where you can just tell. I’m not saying spontaneous works are the only sort that get me chuckling. But a lot of Borat feels like the audience are pretending they’re quite oblivious and unless a real good job’s been done, for me, that just doesn’t work.

Rounding up then, this sounds far too near a damning critique than I actually intended it to be. Don’t get me wrong, Borat’s not a horrendously bad movie. This is a more of a reaction to the hype that it’s generated and how it’s just not quite as good as it’s been made out to be. Of course, the amount of reviews that take an opposite view to my own would suggest that I’m purely in the wrong and hey, we can’t get it right all the time. What I mean by that is don’t miss out on this movie by my say so. Though I wasn’t impressed, it’s one of those where I’m in the minority and so I’d advise you to go and yet your own take and see what you think. I don’t think you should the merits of this movie though on how much you enjoy it with friends. There are plenty of movies that do that. Go see it on your own and see what you think for it’s only the really good stuff that will have you laughing then.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Comedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.