I thought this was pretty damn funny. At 83 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. The romance was perfunctory but the film is consistently funny, and SBC's performance is always fun to watch. SBC and Jason Mantzoukas have some great scenes together. Roger Ebert mentioned in his review that this film is about as dedicated to plot as a Marx Brothers film, which is an apt comparison and not necessarily a bad thing.
It was funny, I laughed. Totally worth $12 and trip to the theater. And awesome seeing Chris Gethard in there for like a half second.
Yup.Originally Posted by darrylduffy
The only person from this list I didn't catch in the movie was Horatio Sanz. Oh, and apparently Eugene Mirman's scene got cut. But yeah, most of these are very small roles. Some people like Garry Shandling are almost impossible to recognize.
I thought overall this movie was funnier than Bruno though. It is almost entirely laugh-laugh-laugh with very little plot, yes. It seemed like in the scenes with Cohen and Mantzoukas together they were just improv-ing and going off script like crazy; those were probably my favorite scenes in the movie. The best thing you can say about this movie is that Cohen is committed to being an equal-opportunity offender and being as politically incorrect as possible; this movie has maybe the most shamelessly un-PC gags since "Team America".Spoiler:
It was probably a good choice to shave the movie down to 83 minutes, I am sure there is plenty of stuff they can put back in for the DVD. Besides the aforementioned Mirman waiter scene, the Megan Fox scene seemed really cut down from the way it was in the trailer. And the scene where Aladeen starts talking about all the movies he produced has him spouting one title ("You've Got Mail Bomb"), when we all know from his talk show appearances that there were a lot more fake movie titles that must have gotten eliminated for time.
The only part of the movie that fell flat for me was Bobby Lee's character, who they keep returning to again and again for a pretty unfunny gag.
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Last edited by slothborn; October 7, 2012 at 9:39 AM.
I really liked it. It's a funny comedy that doesn't give much of a shit about plot. There are some really great jokes (some of which feel like they may have been Borat leftovers, but that's not necessarily a bad thing) and the improv scenes between Mantzoukas' character and Aladeen are really fun to watch.
And by the way, to Brasky, Horatio Sanz is in the scene near the beginning where Aladeen announces that he's developing weapons. He doesn't have any lines. And I agree about Bobby Lee's scenes.
I was laughing up a storm and fell out of my chair! The last time that happened was when I saw Bridesmaids.
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I loved the shit out of this movie. Though I don't think the audience I was with really got the tone until late in the game - probably around the masturbation scene is when the crowd understood how absurdist the movie was.
Two beautiful brilliant things:
The foreign language (arabic?) versions of the movie cliche songs - especially "9-to-5."
The whole zip line scene - especially the three bananas.
In conclusion:
Borat > The Dictator > Bruno > haven't seen the other one
I loved it. We saw it Sunday afternoon and I had been drinking beer by the pool most of the day. It was a perfect circumstance.
Hey, I watched some of Bruno on cable last night, after not having seen it since I saw it in the theater. I still think it's not as good as Borat. In some of the scenes, I actually found myself siding with the real people in the movie, like when Bruno is camping and he goes into that guy's tent at night. There's a difference between trying to expose people's prejudices and homophobia and just being a jerk and provoking people to the point where anyone would get mad. Plus the fakeness of some of the scenes like the one where the dominatrix is whipping him is just annoying. I'm sure there were some staged scenes in Borat too but they weren't so obvious about it. Plus there are cultural references (like the song at the end) that really date the movie whereas you can watch Borat again and again and it's enjoyable still in 2012.
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I watched the extended, "uncensored" version of this yesterday and it's about 20 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Most of the added scenes are just little bits here and there but two of the longer ones are John C. Reilly discussing the Broadway show "Billy Elliot" with Aladeen as he's torturing him and an interview scene with Larry King where he asks Aladeen if he has nuclear weapons. There's also a really long, pointless section with the huge-boobed female guard who is seen at the beginning of the movie which goes on forever and was rightfully cut. I don't know if Mirman's scene is on the deleted scenes or not, as I didn't explore those yet, but it's not in the extended version.
Please let us know if there is a ton more Mantzoukas in the deleted scenes.... thank you.
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