Update: If this news is true Cohen should be shot

As everybody I met recently knew about this movie, I'll start by explaining the rating. Borat (review) is a funny film, a very funny film. But it is over hyped. I think it isn't worth all the fuss people made about it. It's a good movie but you don't need to pull your hair out if you miss it at the cinema. That said if you want to go to the cinema the trailers they showed didn't offer any interesting alternatives so for that reason you might as well go and watch Borat. Rating 3.5/5

Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) is a journalist in Kazakhstan who got an assignment to go to the US to learn the American way of life to suggest improvements for Kazakhstan. Watch the trailer at the official Website.The film starts in Kazakhstan with Borat introducing the village people including the village rapist, the 4th classified prostitute whom he French kisses and later introduces as his sister, his wife who promises to cut off his pole if he misbehaves in the US, and some other villagers. The way Borat speaks is the most defining characteristic of Cohen and I'm sure that I'm going to hear somebody speaking 'Borat's English' very soon.

The introduction gives you a taste of the humour you're to expect from the film. It's full of explicit language, sexual references, and brutal culture bashing. The film is offensive an in the offensiveness lies most of its humour. The only part I thought was insulting was the introduction which portrayed Kazakhstan badly, but that's because I've got a soft spot for these countries. This only lasted for the first five minutes of the film, because the rest of the film has absolutely nothing to do with Kazakhstan.

Borat travels to New York to start the documentary. He starts by stressing his uncivilised nature by thinking that the hotel lift is his hotel room and washing his face with toilet water. Then he settles on the bed to watch TV and from a rerun of Baywatch he learns about Pamela Anderson, who has the ass of a 7 year old, and decides that he wants to marry her. The news that his wife died is greeted with a high-five, and off he goes from New York to California to find Pamela. During the road trip through America, Borat meets people from different sub-cultures like the feminists, the black gangs, a traditional American dinner and the Jews. The Jews are given the worst treatment of them all, and I found the gag of the shape shifters hilarious.

Enough said about the jokes not to spoil the fun. The film is full of jokes and I don't think there is a minute that passes without a joke being made. The good thing about the jokes is that they're fast jokes and they end the minute they start so they don't get long winded.