Again, all I wanna say is really, it’s not the comedy that makes this movie great. Even moreso on this viewing. I can’t believe it was only today I noticed the line at the end – “I have learned that if you chase a dream, especially one with plastic chests, you can miss a real beauty in front of your eyes,” – god I gasped at that one this time around. Everyone needs to see this one at least twice – once for the comedy, once, preferably more times than that even, for everything else. But don’t worry, again the key scenes didn’t fail to have me breathless with laughter. This one just amazes me how much it improves with each viewing, I really didn’t think it’d be such a stayer.

March 8th 2007:

I’m astonished to say, this stands up to a second viewing and I think it will even more in the future. Because of the way the key set-pieces (naked fight, Pamela kidnapping, eg) stick in the memory, it’s easy to forget how much the more the movie is about. What makes it work is the way the mood shifts so dramatically directly after the funniest scene, the naked fight. Overblown as Borat’s breakdown in the middle of the street is, suddenly you find yourself realising that for some strange reason, you actually care for this crazy person, so the last half hour targeting religion and celebrity and how those things can make an already troubled person … well, even more troubled … somehow have a deeper meaning than the shenanigans which preceed it.

I don’t know if that quite made sense – basically what I’m saying is, this movie is way more than a comedy, and I think some people are unsettled by that – and yes, boy is this movie unsettling at times. As I said, I wasn’t sure how it would stand up to a second viewing, and I think if all you got from this movie was the laughs, it would be easy to see it as all downhill following the naked fight scene (which, btw, still makes me nearly lose consciousness laughing) ... but I think that last half hour is where it really becomes something larger entirely.

26th December, 2006:

After the hype, the buzz, and yes, Mark Kermode’s review (I promise this addiction will pass), in addition to recently watching Borat’s TV show and finding it to be just about enough in that form, I really didn’t think this would be as worth my time as I wanted it to be. But what all the reviews etc I’ve read or heard failed to mention is that this is actually a real movie, really written, fully-formed, not just a collection of sketches, cheap shots and gags, and certainly not as close to documentary as some people seem to want to believe. I don’t believe for a second that all Borat’s victims had no idea what was going on, least of all Pamela Anderson. But I really don’t care either. It’s funny. It works. Most surprising of all was the near 10 minutes I found myself almost breathless and crying with laughter. I really didn’t think it’d be that funny. On this occasion I don’t know where Mark Kermode’s head was. No, it’s not a masterpiece, but it really is the funniest film of the year.

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