Ok, so this movie was dumb.
No one in their right mind would or should argue that point. That said, wow it was a lot of fun. There’s something to be said about walking out of the theater with a stupid smile on your face, perfectly aware of the fact that you had just spent 1 hour and 23 minutes of your life laughing at the absolute lowest level of humor, but nonetheless satisfied because you had enjoyed yourself.
A couple things to get out of the way. First, I saw this movie in an almost empty theater with about ten people in it, if that. Second, sitting to the right of me was a mother and her two children, who I’m guessing were no older than twelves years old-tops. This affected my viewing experience in a number of ways. First, I was often the person laughing the loudest at each of the jokes. Others would chuckle, maybe sometimes even laugh audibly. But, mostly it was just me, cackling like a drunk asshole-though I was only one of those things at the time. (I’ll give you a hint.)*
Second, I was sitting there feeling very uncomfortable laughing out loud at the 69ing, teabagging, and persistent butthole-oriented jokes that permeated the film… all while seated an arm’s length away from two little dudes and their indubitably incompetent mother. Like what the fuck, lady. This is one of many problems with America. Fuck you if you take your kids to movies like this and they grow up to be mindless fuckwads that can’t read. Films like this are meant to be enjoyed by 17 or 18 year-olds that can’t read.
Ok, so now that’s off my chest, let’s get to the movie.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong were great. They were perfectly cast, Borat was hilarious, and Sinestro was a perfect foil. I’ll watch Mark Strong in anything, actually. He was great in this. Didn’t take himself too seriously. A badass. Great all around.
Rebel Wilson was also great, if slightly underutilized. Not nearly as much as Ian McShane, who was absolutely wasted in this film. The man’s a fucking genius. It’s OK for Mark Strong to be a fool in a film that is probably below him, because he’s in on the joke. Al Swearengen had a whole lot of fuck nothing to do. He didn’t do anything funny, scary, or mildly interesting. Even Isla Fisher-the wife of Mr. Sasha Baron Fisher-was pretty decent. She didn’t have much to do, but then again she’s not fucking Ian McShane so who gives a shit.
Another thing I liked about this movie: it took all of 30 seconds to get started and dive right into the “plot” and “movie” without wasting any time on bullshit exposition that, let’s be real, no one gives a shit about anyway. It got right into it. It surprised me how quickly things were happening. In a good way.
The backstory about Borat and Sinestro when they were kids was actually pretty genuine and believable and, in a weird kind of way, moving. It worked. It was over-sentimentalized in some ways, but it was all fucking flashbacks so it’s kind of unavoidable. It was good.
And the whole speech that Borat gave at the end about poor people building hospitals and going to war-that’s 100% real and I though a moment of genuine, accurate, social commentary in an otherwise, admittedly, dumbass movie.
And some of the jokes didn’t hit, for sure. But a lot of the other ones did. You have to go in with reasonable expectations. Be willing to laugh at stupid shit. Be willing to be kind of moved by some of the less-stupid shit. The action’s pretty good. Not to mention it pretty much pulls a Hardcore Henry even before that movie comes out. Gives me yet another reason not to see that bullshit. If I have to see another fucking Hardcore Henry trailer, I’m going to punch myself in the fucking eyes.
Overall, you can’t rate a stupid movie the same way you’d rate a serious one. You have to operate on a different scale, with different criteria. I enjoyed this movie, as in, I laughed at stupid shit and had a bit of fun. That’s all it set out to do.
I give this movie 4/5 cucumbers.
Cheers,
Nuggets McGee
*I was an asshole, but sober.
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