If you're a fan of Baron-Cohen, don't watch this. It's a big disappointment for a career that once shone so brightly.
If I had to rate Baron-Cohen's works, it would be the original Ali G TV show, then the US version, then the early British film, maybe tied with Bruno and Borat, and this is way, way, way at the bottom.
Ali G used to make me laugh so hard I would cry. I still watch those old DVDs sometimes and it's still funny, many years later. This film was not funny the first time.
A lot of the intelligent word play, intentional misunderstandings and confusions, all those tiny smart things are gone. Baron-Cohen once made a joke about selling or buying nuclear weapons from/to the UK, when the guest said "Kazakhstan does not have nuclear weapons" to which Borat replied "turn off the camera, this interview is over."
You laugh because of the implications, the unspoken idea that Kazakhstan might have nuclear weapons. A crazy thought. Have the joke is on the camera and the other is your mind filling the blanks.
Here, there is no subtlety, nothing unspoken or unsaid. Everything is shown. The insides of an elephant, an elephant orgy, butts, testicles, you name it. Everything is explicit.
It's not crass humor, it's crassness instead of humor. We all laughed at Borat saying "I took a bit sh*t to a dinner party" or references to his sister, a prostitute, being recognized by the Almaty Chamber of Commerce. We laughed at "sexy time" or him awkwardly coming on to guests or Uncle Jamal's "accident" with a vacuum cleaner.
It wasn't subtle, but it was not unsubtle either, and it was very effective.
Here, it's all overdone. Instead of Baron-Cohen asking a copper if a court would believe that he was cutting his lunch with an attack knife, rushed to pick the phone and the knife slipped into his sock and stayed there while he caught the bus to work and accidentally stabbed someone a few times, a highly ridiculous and contrived story, laughing at Ali G's dumb criminality, here this film has him screaming into a megaphone at a world cup final "we are scum."
Baron-Cohen's former personas were a social commentary, providing funny commentary and criticism at everything, from the United Nations to country clubs, from bars in the American South to environmentalist protests in the UK.
This show is just a series of cheap laughs at easy targets. Fart jokes, fat jokes, tea-bagging, etc.
There were some actual moments of comedy, but they're lost in a sea of meh.
If I had to rate Baron-Cohen's works, it would be the original Ali G TV show, then the US version, then the early British film, maybe tied with Bruno and Borat, and this is way, way, way at the bottom.
Ali G used to make me laugh so hard I would cry. I still watch those old DVDs sometimes and it's still funny, many years later. This film was not funny the first time.
A lot of the intelligent word play, intentional misunderstandings and confusions, all those tiny smart things are gone. Baron-Cohen once made a joke about selling or buying nuclear weapons from/to the UK, when the guest said "Kazakhstan does not have nuclear weapons" to which Borat replied "turn off the camera, this interview is over."
You laugh because of the implications, the unspoken idea that Kazakhstan might have nuclear weapons. A crazy thought. Have the joke is on the camera and the other is your mind filling the blanks.
Here, there is no subtlety, nothing unspoken or unsaid. Everything is shown. The insides of an elephant, an elephant orgy, butts, testicles, you name it. Everything is explicit.
It's not crass humor, it's crassness instead of humor. We all laughed at Borat saying "I took a bit sh*t to a dinner party" or references to his sister, a prostitute, being recognized by the Almaty Chamber of Commerce. We laughed at "sexy time" or him awkwardly coming on to guests or Uncle Jamal's "accident" with a vacuum cleaner.
It wasn't subtle, but it was not unsubtle either, and it was very effective.
Here, it's all overdone. Instead of Baron-Cohen asking a copper if a court would believe that he was cutting his lunch with an attack knife, rushed to pick the phone and the knife slipped into his sock and stayed there while he caught the bus to work and accidentally stabbed someone a few times, a highly ridiculous and contrived story, laughing at Ali G's dumb criminality, here this film has him screaming into a megaphone at a world cup final "we are scum."
Baron-Cohen's former personas were a social commentary, providing funny commentary and criticism at everything, from the United Nations to country clubs, from bars in the American South to environmentalist protests in the UK.
This show is just a series of cheap laughs at easy targets. Fart jokes, fat jokes, tea-bagging, etc.
There were some actual moments of comedy, but they're lost in a sea of meh.