Borat

Okay, so you know how you say all the time that you're too smart to fall for slick marketing, and clever advertising right? Of course you know. I have said it myself a million times that I'm too smart for that. And I would like to think of myself as a prettty smart person - not Cornell West smart, but smart enough. And no fancy jingle, or original commercial could control my behavior, making me want to spend my dollars on some product or service. Does this mindset hit close to home with you as well? I'm sure it does. For me I learned an important lesson in marketing. Of course I have known that much of what goes into marketing is psychological - to make you feel cool; to make you feel accepted; to make you feel young; to make you attract women; to make you attract men, blah, blah, blah. But what I have learned that is more important, is that no matter how much control you have over yourself(or think you have over yourself) when it comes to marketing, if you wait long enough, eventually some thing will come along in marketing that will seemingly be specifically directed to you as an individual or part of a sub group, compelling you to act. So along comes this movie called Borat. Now when I first heard of this movie, which was either in a trailer or commercial, I'm thinking to myself, "Yakov Smirnoff Redux." I'm not really feeling it. Doesn't interest me at all. Of course, being the movie connoisseur that I am, when I hear favorable reviews from critics on a movie(be it a film in any genre), it makes me perk up my ears a little bit. After all, if I decide I want to see a certain movie, I would like to feel my money won't be wasted. So this movie called "Borat" opens in 837 theaters and makes 26.5 million dollars on it's opening weekend. That is OUTSTANDING! There are big time Hollywood productions with big time Hollywood stars that don't hit that mark on opening weekend. But what you have to understand is that many big Hollywood films open on an average of 2,500 to 3,300 screens, depending on how "big" the movie is. Pound for pound, Borat opened in excess of 80 million dollars. This is something I learned after the fact, so this is not what drew me in to see Borat. What made me want to see Borat, was a commercial for the movie after its opening weekend, stating "Could he [Borat] have made the funniest movie of all time?"...Excuse me? Did that commercial just say what I thought it said? The funniest movie of ALL TIME! If you're with me, you know where I'm about to go. "Of all time" is a huge, HUGE statement to make, number 1. And number 2, and this is where the marketing applies to me - there's NO WAY any comedian can hear that, and restrain himself from seeing what's up with that, never mind any other person besides a comedian. A bold statement as such, would naturally be challenged in the eyes of any comedian, because you're putting it in the company of movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and Trading Places (and we all know who starred in those films). So I have already in my mind decided to see this film. Add to that, I was talking to some of my Aikido buddies, I find out that this Borat guy is actually a character, done by Sacha Baron Cohen. If you don't know this name, maybe you know another character he does, Ali G? I had seen this Ali G guy a couple times through the Ali G show, but I really didn't know he was supposed to be a character. I just thought he was some kind of lame wannabe. So the fact that there's this small cult following of this guy, or at least of his characters, I want to know what's the big deal...so today I go see Borat. From what I understand, the movie was shot documentary style, meaning that subjects in the movie, didn't know that the Borat character, was just that, a character. So supposedly, supposedly, these people are responding with plausibility to the wild, crazy antics and statements made by Borat. I don't know how true that is. If there are any unscripted moments,I think the movie makers do an excellent job at blurring those lines between what is real and what is scripted. Nevertheless, there are funny moments in the movie as Borat explores America, delving into among other things, southern conservatism, American idolotry, the role of women in society, and influeces in our country from "da hood"(Purposeful digression: it's always funny how when there's a camera around, that seems to be an excuse to say the word "nigga." Quentin Tarantino likes to drop it like it's a release for him, and Borat says it, although he says it only once. Oh well, if you dish it, you should take it). There are moments where the movie is out there. And when I say out there, I mean OUT THERE. And there are moments where the gag is either tedious, or it fails - there are much more funny moments than not. Now, for that funniest movie of all time thing - I will say this. I will say that Borat may arguabley lay claim to the funniest scene of all time in a movie. If you haven't seen the movie, I won't give it away. I'll just say, if you see the movie, you'll know it when you see it. But I wouldn't give it the funniest of all time for this reason: because the notion of exploring what may be taboo in our country is nothing new or creative, whether it be a broadcast journalist, a man in character, or any other means of execution. Borat does however push the edge, exploring in a ballsy way, and the movie even makes a statement at the end, however small it may be. I can say that I enjoyed the movie and found myself laughing a few times. If I had to grade that, I would give it a B+...but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how this Borat guy was able to get away with some of the anti-semitic material in his movie, and this being a Fox distribution, and NO outcry from the Jewish community. How the hell did that happen? It wasn't until I had come home, where upon stating to my Jewish roommate that I think Borat hates Jews, he clues me in stating, "dude, he's Jewish." Ohhhh, okay. No wonder. I wish somebody would tell me about these things...