This was my 650th review!
We went to see Borat the other day because I like what I saw on TV at the opening in L.A. There was a light blue flag of Kazakhstan flew over the Grauman's Chinese Theatre courtyard, (in LA). A parade of peasant villagers pulling carts of meat, women carrying bails of wheat, scantily clad prostitutes, dirty children with shovels propped over their shoulders, men ladling out cups of horse urine and two men dressed in very thigh shoulder strap thongs were ther to celebrate the world premiere of Kazakhstan. At the end of the parade an old station wagon that had Borat in it. As the odors filled the air joined together for a chorus of the Kazakhstan national anthem.
It was Directed by Larry Charles, the screen play was written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Anthony Hines. Produced by Jay Roach, Sacha Baron Cohen
It was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
The movie was filmed in Virgina, NYC & LA in the USA and Moroieni in Romania.
Rated R. It takes about 1 1/4 hours to see it.
The Cast:
Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat Sagdiyev.
Ken Davitian is Azamat Bagatov.
Luenell is Luenell.
Pamela Anderson plays herself.
The Plot:
Borat TV comentator in Kazakhstan who goes to the USA to report on Kazakhstan.
He want to tell the Americans that Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the World.
He takes his documentary staff with him so they can record what he is going in America.
He speaks at Rodeos, on TV and in the street all across America.
He sees Pamela Anderson, (from Vancouver Island), and decides he want to marry her.
You'll have to see the movie to find out what happens next.
I don't know a thing about Kazakhstan so I thought I'd check the facts.
TRUE:
Traditional Kazakh culture largely reflects the country's nomadic roots, while the country's popular entertainments include SuperStar KZ, a Russian-language musical talent show sponsored by Pepsi.
The Lonely Planet says vistors who "enjoy remoteness, wide-open spaces, lunar landscapes, long hypnotic train rides and horse sausage will definitely be in their element."
In August, 2004, the country's chief rabbi told an international conference in Brussels that, in the past decade, he had never faced a single case of anti-Semitism.
Thanks to the booming energy sector, the national unemployment rate was estimated at 8.1% in 2005.
Kazakh athletes have won 30 Olympic medals for their nation, including four golds for boxing.
The country's population is 15,233,244.
The national musical instrument is the dombra, a long necked lute.
The U.S. State department calls the current Kazakh government's record on human rights "poor."
The Central Asian nation is the largest in the region, with an area roughly 2.5 times that of Ontario.
FALSE:
A Kazakh man obtains a bride by buying a woman from her father for 15 gallons of insecticide.
One of its most respected professions is gypsy catcher.
The "chain of importance" or caste system is God, man, horse, dog, woman and rat.
The country prides itself on having the cleanest prostitutes in Central Asia, and Borat's sister, Natalya, is the No. 4 ranked one in the country.
Its most popular hobbies include disco dancing, archery, rape and table tennis.
Kazakh wine is made of fermented horse urine.
Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakh women can now travel on the inside of buses, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats and the age of consent has been raised to eight years old.
The national sport is shooting a dog and then having a party.
There is an annual Kazakh ritual called the Running of the Jew.
The Music:
Chaje Shukarije, Born To Be Wild, Siki, Siki Baba, Gypsy's Kolo, Eu Vin Acasa Cu Drag, In my country there is problem, (Throw the Jew Down the Well), Grooming Pubis, Magic Mamaliga, Money Boney,You Be My Wife, Ederlez, Mahalageasca, and Kazakhstan.
What I thought:
Comedy is subjective, but everyone should find a few key moments in film at least mildly funny. Harpo's mirror scene in Duck Soup, Kevin Klein's "every man for himself" Buddhist in A Fish Called Wanda and the trial in Woody Allen's Bananas spring to mind. Others -- the puppet love scene from Team America, John Travolta's dreadlocks in Battlefield Earth, Deuce Bigalow -- should offend anyone considered normal.
Borat, "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is unique in managing to fit squarely into both categories at once".
This movie is so funny. This one never lets up because it's like being beaten with a funny stick for 82 minutes.
The plot is simple. Borat is a fictional rube from Kazakhstan, an actual central Asian former Soviet republic. Kazakhstan is played by Romania, while Borat is the creation of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show). An avowed Americaphile, he says goodbye to his 42-year-old mother (who looks about 90), leaves behind his town with its annual "running of the Jew" event, and travels to the States.
The melting pot has welcomed many visitors from imaginary places, (Eddie Murphy in Coming to America was born in Zamunda), Daryl Hannah in Splash, (was from the land of the mermaids). The real ones Due South, Crocodile Dundee and the Coneheads always come up against fictional welcome wagons, Hollywood actors specially trained to cluck and smile at those wacky foreigners.
Borat takes his kicks out of having his fans that love him.
He ends up by rubbing shoulders with real Americans, (who haven't been watching enough British TV).
Some are merely in the movie to fool you like the car salesman who tries to explain to a lady that a magnet isn't a standard option on American automobiles. Others are downright creepy. Take the gun store owner, asked by Borat for the best weapon to defend himself from a Jew (Borat's alter ego is himself Jewish), who calmly extols the virtues of a 9mm semi-automatic.
This film will be a crowd pleaser because he praises America's troops and some people in the audience were cheering are so loud they didn't notice he says "war of terror" instead of "war on terror!"
Thoes that heard it right they probably chalk it up to Kazahkstan's being a great movie.
He slowly twists the tenor of his speech until he is devoutly wishing that every Iraqi man, woman and child be flattened by the treads of U.S. tanks. The crowd shuffles as their patriotism goes pffffht! like an untied balloon
Did You Know That:
A complaint has been filed against Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Borat in the film, by a German human-rights group campaigning for Gypsies. He has been accused of violating the anti-discrimination law in Germany.
My Conclusion:
I didn't like the racial slurs but this picture was more than that. Cohen is Jewish so I know he didn't mean to hurt anyone.
Don't miss this laugh out loud film.
Thanks for reading my review.
©LL2006
