Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

The pursuit of maximum gag idiocy goes hand in hand with the pursuit of documentarity – if the individual performances of the Kazakh red neck really had the hallmark of authenticity, it would probably be more fun. But the want is very apparent. Cohen saves what can't handle the weak verbal humor, in which gross incorrectness plays a major role, with physical courage (the girl with the clever geront is truly a stunt performance). There are parts in the film contagious with their crunchy poetics and the short runtime is also helpful. The ridicule of the traditional attributes of American petty bourgeoisie is quite nice, but it does not exceed the possibilities of the first plan. Borat's journey through the USA is pretty fun, even though it's all about fart humor. You laugh at him, but only the stink remains. (21/01/2009)

Funny? Yes! Badly balanced? You bet it is. If you haven’t come across Cohen and his humor and sketches before, you’ll love Borat (if you can stand watching). Unfortunately, if you know him, then you will find that this feature-length offering is rather disenchanting, because it has a lot of dead places, and the scenes that work excellently a mere recycled versions of Cohen’s TV sketches. But at the same time, the whole thing is fine and likeable, and it is certainly no disappointment or failure because, at very least, Cohen’s charisma carries this pseudo-documentary even at its weaker moments. (24/11/2006)

Years ago, this film really impressed me and still evokes the same feelings in me. Here are scenes that even a person doesn't want to watch because it's almost scary how Sacha Baron Cohen got involved in them. On the other hand, it brilliantly shows how people pretend or, conversely, how they behave when they don't have to pretend. This journey to America paid off like this. (07/08/2016)

I wisely avoided Borat during its premiere because, based on the initial reactions, I clearly identified that this style of humor would not be my cup of tea. However, when it was served to me on a silver platter on TV, I couldn't resist confronting my feelings with the enthusiastic reviews of some viewers. My intuition did not let me down, so even though I sympathize with Cohen's goals, his humor is overall indigestible to me. It's fine that he takes shots at political correctness, hypocrisy, sanctimoniousness, uncritical religious faith, various forms of dogmatism, and human stupidity in general. However, he lacks (and at times desperately so) a sense of moderation, elegance, and nobility. Cohen is exactly the type of comedian who won't hesitate to stick his head in a bucket of feces for the sake of audience response, and he somehow reminds me of the clown Krusty from the popular TV show The Simpsons. I suspect that political correctness means absolutely nothing to Cohen, as he doesn't want to criticize anything or fight for anything, and he simply wants to sell his one-man show as best as possible. At times, he succeeds in doing just that; I definitely can't deny his sense of irony and ability to escalate a certain joke. I also definitely laughed more than is customary for contemporary comedies. However, there were certainly more moments where I cringed at the concentrated awkwardness. I'll skip the exaggerated exclamations like "Best comedy of the year!" because everyone, myself included, has the right to their own indulgences. Overall impression: 40%. (22/11/2010)

Fully appreciated after a second screening. This film is not what it appears to be at first sight. A witty mockery of petty bourgeoisie, the fanatical religiosity of the American Midwest and the stupid anti-Semitism of a significant part of the population, all with a broader scope (it doesn't matter if it's the USA or a small country in the middle of Europe, people are basically the same everywhere, except for small nuances). My colleague Cooper and I laughed like madmen, a cleansing laugh, knowing that what we see on the screen is inherently ridiculous, but beneath its veneer is a deliberately targeted satire. "Disgusting, filthy and perverse" can only seem to people unable to read between the lines. (22/12/2007)