Borat

After staying at home for the whole of New Year's day fixing my jigsaw, I was quite happy when my friend messaged me at 10.30pm and asked if I wanted to catch a midnight show. We decided on Borat coz we weren't really in the mood for anything serious (like The Queen) or angsty (like Blood Diamond).

Borat is about this guy who impersonates a TV reporter from Kazakhstan and goes around the US making a documentary about life in the US. The thing is, all the people in the movie are real people who think they are actually talking to a TV reporter trying to learn about the US. They never knew they were being taken for a ride. And this Borat is basically an obnoxious guy who does unimaginably things like pooping into a plastic bag and bringing it to the dinner table as he doesn't know what to do with it. Check out this article on how the producers lied to these people & their reactions.

The movie makes fun of a wide spectrum of things: Jews, Christians, Etiquette trainer, humour coach, texas rodeo, gays, prostitutes, african americans, etc, etc. There's almost nothing Borat doesn't make fun of... which makes me wonder how our dear Singapore censors actually passed the movie. On one hand, I'm glad they've let such a movie through but on the other hand, I'm surprised they allowed such anti-semitic humour through knowing the kind of stand they make against racial humour.

OK, I guess the question is, is the movie funny. I will have to admit that I laughed my head off. But you know, it's kinda like guilty humour. You know it's really bad to laugh at such things yet as you watch it, you can't help but laugh coz it's just so stupid. So, my simple advice is, if you can't take politically incorrect humour then give this movie a miss. Some people feel that Borat is a very cruel joke which made fun of innocent people who were trying to be nice. Actually, that's quite true. He does come across as being quite cruel (esp one scene involving a nice old jewish couple who ran a bed & breakfast which they had stayed at). If you want to watch Borat, just make sure you aren't offended by such antics.