movie minute

Want to see a shocking and hilarious film? Hmmmm...., what could your choices be? How about one that's creating a lot of controversy and is certain to be polarizing. Check out Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan. Yes, that's the whole title of the film. It's the story of Kazakhstanian tv reporter Borat Sagdiyev (fictional) who decides to travel to the U.S. and A. with his sidekick Azamat (Ken Davitian) for to get some ideas on how to be more welcoming and accepting. Along the way he encounters "everyday" people in America; shocking and hilarious encounters. This movie is hysterical but I honestly did not know whether to be shocked (that I was laughing) or offended (that such demeaning stuff was being shown). In the end, both my spouse and I laughed. I'm glad he laughed with me because the undertone of the movie is just plain mean. Most of the scenes are of real people who are being, in essence, set up by an observant Jewish man who is pretending to be from a foreign country and trying to broaden his mind while they come off looking like jerks and bigots. Two people in the theater walked out during one shockingly gross yet funny scene. What did they expect? This movie offends just about everyone. Apparently Sacha Baron Cohen (the British comedian who doesn't really have a mustache who plays Borat) got everyone to sign documents permitting them to be on film but much of it was probably under false pretenses. I hope Cohen and director Larry Charles (Seinfeld) made sure all of their i's were dotted and t's were crossed. Two S.C. college students (yes, they are in the film) are suing the filmmakers because the producers plied them with alcohol and got them to say the racist and offensive things they said on camera. Methinks they did that all on their own. You'll either laugh or be offended but if you're laughing you won't have time to be offended; but your jaw may be dropped for most of the movie. Not all of the scenes are real, some are obviously staged and while those are still funny it's the ones that are truly duping people that will elicit the most laughs (or people being offended). The rodeo scene and the hotel scene where Azamat finds Borat's magazine are two of the highlights. It's always interesting seeing movies with my spouse because in the movie when Azamat speaks the Kazakh language. Borat was speaking certain words in Armenian and Hebrew and Yiddish. Also Kazakhstan was actually Romania (yes, they filmed the Kazakhstan scenes there). What I want to know is how Cohen's family is reacting to his treatment of Jews. Borat actually came from Baron's variety show Da Ali G Show in which he had three different characters and duped people on a smaller scale. He also managed to dupe former U.S. Congressman Bob Barr and former Presidential contender Alan Keyes (who himself is controversial). This movie was #1 last weekend (Nov. 3-5) which is surprising since it was only showing on 800 some odd screens. This weekend it will be on over 2,000 screens and will rival the Will Ferrell movie, Stranger Than Fiction, for the #1 spot. See this movie at your own risk just don't say I didn't warn you.

Bags of popcorn (out of 5): 4.5

paul