I finally saw it tonight.

It's not as bad as Freddy Got Fingered (where I actually felt violated afterwards). But I don't understand why this movie was such a phenomenon. It had a couple funny parts, like when Borat was in DC and he was turning into oncoming traffic on a one way street that was packed during rush hour (because I've actually seen that happen in DC). I also liked the bagging of Pamela Anderson. But that's about it.

Labels: movies

( 3comments )

at April 23, 2007 9:06 AM  Charlie said...

Why Borat was a phenomenon:

It appealed to both of these wide-ranging demographics... 1) people who think politically incorrect things are funny by virtue of their political incorrectness alone, and 2) people who like to laugh at and "other" those they view as intolerant, while giving themselves a free pass for their high-mindedness. Also 3) People like me who think they are above it all. :)

Does that make sense?

 

at April 23, 2007 9:08 AM  Samantha said...

Actually yes. Thank goodness, because I've been thinking about it and I honestly couldn't figure it out. It literally stumped me. So thank you!

 

at April 29, 2007 10:31 AM  ish said...

Also, though its certainly been done before its the first time really since Andy Kaufmann for someone to commit so strongly to a caricature as a character, which makes it kind of brilliant and fascinating (to me at least). Of course, Kaufmann was doing it 25 years earlier so clearly he's the real genius, but Baron-Cohen certainly got some interesting mileage out of it.

Incidentally, I've heard from people who know and whose opinions I trust that the Borat work Sascha did in Da Ali G Show was actually much more interesting, and that the movie, because it was a movie had to be a bit broader with its brush.

Similar to the differences between Serenity and Firefly, in which Firefly was allowed to take longer and be more subtle.

All that said, you may just not like it, which seems perfectly OK to me. I'm mostly interested as I said above in the character commitment aspect.