Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Luenell, Alan Keyes, Spirea CiorobeaDirector: Larry Charles
Studio: 20th Century Fox
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Running Time: 84 minutes
DVD Release: March 6th 2007
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DVD Review
It takes a certain kind of comic genius to create a character who is, to quote the classic Sondheim lyric, appealing and appalling. But be forewarned: Borat is not "something for everyone." It arrives as advertised as one of the most outrageous, most offensive, and funniest films in years. Kazakhstan journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen reprising the popular character from his Da Ali G Show), leaves his humble village to come to "U.S. of A" to film a documentary. After catching an episode of Baywatch in his New York hotel room, he impulsively scuttles his plans and, accompanied by his fat,
hirsute producer (Hardy to his Laurel), proceeds to California to pursue the object of his obsession, Pamela Anderson. Borat is not about how he finds America; it's about how America finds him in a series of increasingly cringe-worthy scenes. Borat, with his '70s mustache, well-worn grey suit, and outrageously backwards attitudes (especially where Jews are concerned) interacts with a cross-section of the populace, catching them, a la Alan Funt on Candid Camera, in the act of being themselves. Early on, an unwitting humor coach advises Borat about various types of jokes. Borat asks if his brother's retardation is a ripe subject for comedy. The coach patiently replies, "That would not be funny in America." NOT! Borat is subversively, bracingly funny. When it comes to exploring uncharted territory of what is and is not appropriate or politically correct, Borat knows no boundaries, as when he brings a fancy dinner with the southern gentry to a halt after returning from the bathroom with a bag of his feces ("The cultural differences are vast," his hostess graciously/patronizingly offers), or turns cheers to boos at! a rodeo when he calls for bloodlust against the Iraqis and mangles "The Star Spangled Banner."
Success, John F. Kennedy once said, has a thousand fathers. A paternity test on Borat might reveal traces of Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez, Andy Kaufman, Michael Moore, The Jamie Kennedy Xperiment, and Jackass. Some scenes seem to have been staged (a game Anderson, whom Borat confronts at a book signing, was reportedly in on the setup), but others, as the growing litany of lawsuits attests, were not. All too real is Borat's encounter with loutish Southern frat boys who reveal their sexism and racism, and the disturbing moment when he asks a gun store owner what gun he would recommend to "kill a Jew" (a Glock automatic is the matter-of-fact reply). Comedy is not pretty, and in Borat it can get downright ugly, as when Borat and his producer get jiggly with it during a nude fight that spills out from their hotel room into the hallway, elevator, lobby and finally, a mortgage brokers association banquet. High-five! --Donald Liebenson
On the DVD"Global Visitings" captures Borat-mania in all its hype and glory, as Sacha Baron Cohen, never breaking character, promotes his film around the world. On the itinerary is Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Toronto Film Festival, a now-legendary screening aborted after a projector malfunction. A mixed bag of deleted scenes finds Borat trying to bait more unsuspecting citizens, including an animal-control worker who refuses Borat a dog after he asks, "How do you recommend I cook this?" and a doctor who is nonplussed by Borat's obscene medical history. A supermarket visit offers the most maddening fromage-inspired looniness since Monty Python's "Cheese Shop" sketch. Also good for a few chuckles are a faux soundtrack commercial and Baywatch parody ("Sexydangerwatch"). --Donald Liebenson
Beyond Borat
 All things Sacha Baron Cohen |  Borat Apparel |  Borat Soundtrack |
Stills from Borat (click for larger image)
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User Reviews
Insulting, offensive, bathroom humor - Rating: 1/5
My son (26) lent me "Borat" claiming it to be one of the funniest movies ever. Let me say that I am so happy that I watched a borrowed dvd and did not purchase the movie. It would have been money down the toilet (so to speak).
My feelings about "Borat" are articulated in the title of this review. Tongue-in-cheek as they are, I still don't like ethnic humor, gay humor, watching naked men wrestling on a bed (and elsewhere), incestuous humor, and---well, you get the idea.
I know that this is a generational issue and I would like to get the average age of those reviewers who gave the film 4 or 5 stars.
From an old geezer, save your money and buy a Bob Hope movie.
Borat - Rating: 2/5
This book a most sensible acquisition if you are think of travel to this country and will instruct you on all you needing know.
Throw This Movies Into Trashakanistan, Pleaz - Rating: 2/5
I'm sooo glad I didn't pay to see this turkey. The initial idea was great, that's why 2 stars. I loved the beginning in Borat's native land and it was cute, but I was never laughing out loud. But it all downhill from there. Since everyone else has analyzed this thing to death, I'll only ask one question:
Azamat: In the naked wrestling scene, where are his gonads? He is sans penis. I have watched the beginning a couple of times and I do believe that the "woman" who plays his short, fat nasty wife is Azamat. Azamat has female breasts and if you look close enough, I think a female actor was given a FX "hair shirt" and male balding pattern wig. The voices of the two characters are identical. Haven't read all 566 reviews, so if anyone knows some inside info, please clue us in. Azamat has been completely castrated otherwise.
I don't know why this haunts me, but like the movie "It's Pat", it's bugging me to no end to know what sex Azamat really is........
comedy's not pretty - Rating: 4/5
Borat, a wild and sometimes almost completely out of control comedy, tells the fictional story of a news reporter named Borat Sagdiyev who travels from Kazakhstan to America to study American life. His government allegedly hopes to "benefit" from learning American ways. Of course, all this is merely a premise for a wacky comedy. We see Borat, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, traveling around the United States with his producer Azamat, making fun of them and sometimes driving them crazy with his Borat personality. The people he interviews, including a humor coach, feminists, a rodeo crowd and college students never knew that he was pulling their legs while they were making this film.
It's stunning at times how much the Americans, including the humor coach and the people at a society dinner, put up with the rather crude and obnoxious Borat. Borat has many ways of making people less than comfortable and catch them off their guard. For example, he actually walks up to men on the New York City subway and tries to kiss them on the cheek! Ay! Of course, some people paid a high price for being "subjects" of the Borat experience; we are all familiar by now of the lawsuits that people filed against Sacha Cohen because they were humiliated by him on camera. They never knew they'd be seen across the world on movie screens. That could be embarrassing!
Look also for a strong subplot: Borat sees Pamela Anderson on television and decides to run across the country, "interviewing" people, as he travels not just to understand Americans but also to trap Pamela Anderson into marrying him. Watch how this plays out when Borat eventually does meet Pamela!
This movie is not for sensitive people who insist on political correctness. Borat Sagdiyev is certainly very much a Jew hater (although in real life Sacha Cohen is very religious Jew); and Borat's views on women, romance, handicapped people and African American people aren't exactly politically correct. In fact, Borat's beliefs are mostly downright racist. The trick, to make the movie work as a comedy, is to take these bigoted views and expose them (and the Americans who become ensnared in Borat's "little schemes") in a way that is sure to get a laugh. In essence, Borat tries to be a modern day "Archie Bunker" who also makes fun of (and provokes) people by trying to kiss them on the cheek when they have never even seen him before.
The DVD comes with a plethora of deleted scenes; and the music "infomercial" was also very well done. We also get footage of Borat speaking to crowds, being interviewed on Late Night with Conen O'Brien and more!
The cinematography is great in the scenes with Borat and Pamela Anderson; and I liked the scenes back in Kazakhstan when Borat is preparing to go to America.
If you can take a joke, you will enjoy Borat. It's not for everyone; it's far from being politically correct but it should be OK once in a while to make fun of ourselves. After all, if Sacha Cohen, a devout Jew, can play the Jew-hating Borat, we ought to be able to laugh at ourselves, too. I will give this movie four stars and not five because there are some awfully controversial moments in the film; but I do recommend you see this. You ought to have a good laugh!
Fantastic if sometimes vulgar portrayal of the hypocrisy of political correctness - Rating: 5/5
One of the basic tenets of political correctness is that it is made to protect all groups, minorities as well as majorities, except a minority group of white, heterosexual men, who are sort-of left over by a process of elimination. How to show up this hypocrisy to those who aren't aware of this fact? Turn the tables. Make a film where EVERY gender, racial, economic group is offended and see who shouts loudest. The result - heterosexual, white men were not offended in the least by attacks on their gender, which occurs in the film by making them look racist, sexist and stupid in the extreme. This is because they are used to a similar level of heterosexual male abuse on any visit these days to a cinema. No, its those who are normally completely protected by the unfair rules of PC who are up in arms. It will be years to come before the genius of this film as a kind of social PC experiment is recognised. It was like a shot out of the blue that has still left a lot of people reeling, so completely against the grain it is against the usual Hollywood claptrap, with their incorrect PC and pseudo-equality. Fantastic!
