Just Got Back From Seeing "Borat"

AnnaZ

[AnnaZ]

It is vulgar, crude, offensive, and embarrassing.

That said, I haven't laughed that hard since Team America: World Police.

[AnnaZ]

This is a mockumentery...not real people. It is a movie. People said what Borat wanted them to say. People acted the way Borat wanted them to act.

Not necessarily. Read this.

(an excerpt)

But as I told you yesterday, "Borat" also has its victims. One of them is Dharma Arthur, a 35-year-old television news producer who lost her job after Baron Cohen as Borat appeared live on her show in Jackson, Miss. Arthur is now working in Panama City, Fla. But her tale of how Borat wound up on WAPT, and the consequences, is an unhappy one. If it’s true — and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t — Baron Cohen needs to send her a check from his first weekend proceeds.

All Dharma Arthur wants, though, is an apology.

Like all the others who were spoofed and conned, Arthur tells me she got a call from a publicist in July 2005 from something called One America Productions. Their Web site checked out, and Arthur welcomed “a little blond guy who looked college age” to her studio. He said they were shooting a documentary called “America: Behind the Propaganda” to show foreigners that Americans weren’t “evil.”

She had never seen “Da Ali G Show” on HBO nor had she ever heard of Borat. “I don’t have cable. I have two mortgages,” she said.

But Arthur did a little research. Thinking Borat was Muslim, she greeted him with deference. “Women aren’t supposed to touch men in public, so I didn’t make physical contact,” she said. She put Borat on the air with anchor Brad McMullan, she said, “and then things went haywire.

[Chickensoup]

It still was a set up.

[AnnaZ]

Yes, it was a set-up, but the victims weren't in on it.

[ShandaLear]

Going to see it this afternoon with the whole family.

[AnnaZ]

Please define "whole family".

[AnnaZ]

Did you see it?

[MadIvan]

Yes...it was fantastic and hilarious. One thing I think people need to remember is that it is a pro-American film - everyone (apart from the New Yorkers) were warm and remarkably tolerant of Borat and his antics.

Regards, Ivan

[AnnaZ]

'Borat' Opens #1: Huge $$$ Matinees/Evenings Friday; Easily Tops 'Santa Clause 3'...



'Borat' Goes Wild at BoxOffice...

Chart...

[ShandaLear]

Husband and 18 year old son.

[AnnaZ]

One thing I think people need to remember is that it is a pro-American film - everyone (apart from the New Yorkers) were warm and remarkably tolerant of Borat and his antics.

LOL.

[AnnaZ]

If you catch this flick you'll notice an "extra" from Boomerang in it. LOL!

[AnnaZ]

Oh, okay. Whew. LOL. It is *not* child-friendly.

Come back and let me know how hard you laughed.

= )

(Don't forget I called it crude, vulgar, offensive, and embarrassing, tho'!)

[ShandaLear]

HA! Will do!

[BibChr]

Unless absolutely everything I've ever seen of this idiot, and everything I've heard about the movie, is untrue, I can't imagine wanting to see it. Ever.

I've just never found humor in deceiving people and taking advantage of their goodwill to humiliate them and mock what they find precious. A brief, mild practical joke that ends up being fun for the object = one thing. Extended, degrading deception = totally different.

Humor is not self-justifying.

[smith288]

Husband and 18 year old son.

Expect your two men to feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable during one scene. EXTREMELY.

[zook]

Without giving anything away, could you give me an idea of the nature of the vulgar or "gross" parts? I'm trying to decide whether to go. Thanks.

[smith288]

I often wonder just how many Americans want what that old rodeo guy wants when he was speaking of gay people. What a horrible person.

[Spyder]

I've just never found humor in deceiving people and taking advantage of their goodwill to humiliate them and mock what they find precious. A brief, mild practical joke that ends up being fun for the object = one thing. Extended, degrading deception = totally different.

So would Candid Camera also be degrading?

[AnnaZ]

Expect your two men to feel EXTREMELY uncomfortable during one scene. EXTREMELY.

Extremely! LOL. And more than one scene, methinks. (The wrestling scene almost put me over the edge... I was in tears... the elevator.... the "prop"... oh, my sides!)

[AnnaZ]

Unless absolutely everything I've ever seen of this idiot, and everything I've heard about the movie, is untrue, I can't imagine wanting to see it. Ever.

Yes, undoubtedly some folks would hate this movie. Perhaps you would be one of them. I wasn't (yet with pre-stated caveats).