Yep, it’s true. I finally got around to seeing Borat, and I have to admit, it just wasn’t as funny as I was hoping it would be.
I mean, it’s damn funny, there are certainly a few laugh-out-loud scenes and a good deal of chuckling, but it lacks…something.
After watching so much of Borat on Da Ali G Show, I guess I was hoping for a little more from the movie. It loses something in the translation from the small screen to the big. Borat is still a lovable, scruffy character, but the situations he puts himself into feel a little contrived, a little too over the top. The beauty of Borat — believe it or not — is that his was a sort of understated comedy (yep, I said it, understated). Some of that is lost in the scramble to make a cohesive movie out of Cohen’s skits.
All that being said, though, Borat is the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long while. It’s certainly refreshing to watch after having so many lame-ass people tell me that Wedding Crashers is “the best comedy ever” (my opinion? it sucks hairy ass, and not in the good way Borat does).
It’s just…I left wanting more of the “old” Borat. It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t seen the plethora of bits Cohen’s alter ego did on Da Ali G Show. But it’s true.