Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Borat is a scream

I was in Blockbuster last night, using my rain-check coupon for a free rental of Borat. That whole "guaranteed to be in stock" is quite useful. The gal checking me out said to her co-worker, "It's hard to explain to people. He's a foreigner, but he's not. Some people don't get the joke."

Sure. But then, I think Americans tend to be very literal most of the time. We tend to be outrightly dense when it comes to this kind of humor.

Sasha Baron Cohen plays a dangerous game with this mockumentary, gonzo style humor. Borat is a funny, funny character, but what's funnier is what people reveal to him. They are just being themselves and the moments are priceless. Whether it be rodeo rednecks, Southern belles, drunken frat boys or the guy who works at the grocers, Borat will out you.

Borat, who becomes like a homeless person and ends up sleeping outside of a church, is first ignored by the faithful, but once inside, becomes "saved." It is a view inside the world of the fundamental believers-a freakin' freak show unto itself, but his conversion is screamingly funny.


That being out of the way, this movie made me howl with laughter. There are moments that are so funny you think that your head is going to explode. I literally laughed so hard, I saw stars.

I was a huge Ali G fan before this-another of Cohen's characters that just stick in your brain.

This guy is an original and a comic genius.

Warning: no kids for this one. The naked wrestling scene is quite gross.

1 comment:

jedijawa said...

The naked wrestling scene started out gross but the longer it went the funnier it got.

I heard that this dvd release is causing controversey because it is designed to look like a bootleg. How funny!