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

Larry Charles / Sacha Baron Cohen
2006

The high-buzz big-screen translation of Sacha Cohen's most popular character comes off a bit too hokey, and much less effectively than its boob-tube beginnings. Here, the ersatz Kazakh may be reaching a wider audience (emphasis on the "may"), but in return Cohen gives up a good cut of laughs in exchange for a fluffy road story with a lot of superfluous filler. Essentially the film boils down to a season of "Da Ali G Show's" Borat segments padded with a hasty, insincere, rigidly-structured plotting. Through it all the Borat character is played true to form, and there's plenty of good, familiar laughs here, but the forced nature of the writing and direction disappoint when compared to the nimble and concise television version.

The filmmakers opt for a more digestible mockumentary style that broadly personalizes Borat, giving him accessible emotions, and an absurdly specific quest: to track down and marry Pamela (Pam-ay-la) Anderson, by force if necessary. The picture would greatly benefit by taking the form it claims to - an informational documentary about American culture for Kazakh viewers. Cohen is brilliant at victimizing his unwitting subjects through improvisation, but unfortunately meticulous scripting robs the film of much of its wit. Its a shame that Cohen is willing to take the piss out of some of his own jokes. Showing his Kazakh town (a weak visual portrayal at best) ruins all the dead-wife and prostitute-sister jokes that are staples of the act. Also, the use of a hired actress for Borat's working-girl love interest, and Pamela Anderson's complicity in the wedding sack gag is contrary to the core of Sacha Cohen's comedy. Borat's usually hilarious interviews are clipped and shortened, rarely giving time for the brutally uncomfortable faux pas to set in.

The only advantage the film has over the show is the inclusion of Borat's "producer" Azamat, a perfectly cast and costumed squat penguin man who manages to rub his naked hairy ass and scrotum on Borat's face (Kazakh wrestling!) before the film's end. Also, the scene where a hitchhiking Borat is picked up by drunk, racist, chauvinist, frat boys in a too-cramped RV is as good and as classic as anything from the TV series.

I've always been under the impression that a motion picture version of a successful comedy show should pull at least one gargantuan stunt to get butts in seats and sell tickets. There's no such moment here, and Borat's laughing all the way to the bank with the box office returns. I'm curious to see how Cohen's next movie (mit Bruno!) works out, but if this is any indication I'll stick to reruns on HBO.

Review by Brett A. Scieszka

Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell

Hajime Sato
1968

This neat little Japanese horror/sci-fi mishmash is apparently a favorite of pop-culture-junkie loudmouth Quentin Tarantino. The film borrows heavily from Don Siegel's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," with a stock vampire flavor, and most intriguingly, a Romero-esque take on human nature in crisis.

An orange spaceship flying through a strange red sky causes a commuter jet to crash in a craggy no man's land. One of the passengers, a white clad assassin by trade, becomes host to the gelatinous Gokemidoro, a murderous alien hellbent on annihilating the human race. Parasite and host begin to prey upon the crash survivors who are having a rough time getting along. The assortment of character types are a hoot: a corrupt politician, a morally bankrupt businessman and his trophy wife, a would-be terrorist youth, a psychologist, a professor, a grieving American widow, and the noble flight crew. Each character is unsubtly caricatured and melodramatically portrayed, easily falling victim to the survival instinct of their Id. This makes for some pretty great moments.

There's not a lot of money up on the screen, but a one-two punch of clever filmmaking and decent special effects makes the film sufficiently creepy and fun. The photography's garish color palate complements exaggerated acting and slick aircraft models. Split heads, bodies drained of blood, and desiccated corpses mount in the waterless fever pitch of the crashed jet. Nothing is quiet or quaint here, as the passengers' predicament is highly politicized, mirroring the turbulent climate of the times. Political assassination, the Vietnam War, and the growing rift between classes are stuffed into a plane and smashed upon rocks. And of course, no Japanese sci-fi would be complete without its ubiquitous superstar the mushroom cloud, which makes its appearance here both onscreen and through metaphor in the film's apocalyptic finale.

The naive antiwar statement in cautionary-tale clothing makes a nice backdrop for all manner of bizarre and terrifying invaders, and for all independence days and wars between worlds, the Gokemidoro know its a little too late for us this time around.

Review by Brett A. Scieszka