The review Text copyright Filmverdict 2006. Any film stills are copyright of their respective owners. Used without permission, sorry!
It's a pity that there has been so much publicity for this film because it means I've seen a lot of clips from it (despite trying to avoid them). There were several parts though that I hadn't seen and I found these the funniest, simply due to lack of familiarity with them. I would've loved to see the film completely unspoiled, because it probably would have been an absolute riot from start to finish. As it was, I still really enjoyed it, mainly because Sacha Baron Cohen's perfomance is brilliant, making Borat himself one of the best comedic creations of all time. Most of the humour is of the "I can't believe he's saying/doing that" variety, so if the basic idea of the character doesn't amuse you, you probably won't get much from the film (in this case, though, I would like to ask: do you have a sense of humour?). The film does try to have some semblance of a plot, that being Borat's quest to travel across America to LA and marry Pamela Anderson, but the scripted scenes that deal with the narrative - although funny in their own right - feel at odds with the improvisational comedy elsewhere. There are also some situations that in hindsight you feel must have been set up, which is a little jarring as it goes against the main selling point of the movie. Ignore my nitpicking, though, as Borat: CLOAFMBGNOK (!) roars along at an excellent pace, packing in numerous set-to-be-classic moments, and is certainly one of the funniest films of the year.
The summary
Borat may not quite be one of the funniest films ever made, as has been claimed, but it is hilarious and definitely unique. Deserves to be the big hit that it looks set to become.
