Borat the Movie

[andy2002]

He's only gone and got the No.1 movie in the US of A this weekend. Not bad for some bloke who used to be on the 11 o'clock Show with Iain Lee!!

From http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20061105/116276232000.html

'Borat' Earns Glorious $26.4M in Debut

Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh alter-ego Borat made glorious returns at the box office, surprising Hollywood with a No. 1 debut.

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," 20th Century Fox's big-screen incarnation of Cohen's Kazakh journalist from "Da Ali G Show," took in $26.4 million during its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"This picture was playing to full houses," said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox. "The planets aligned, the moons aligned, the stars aligned, and everything came together perfectly for us on this weekend."

Box-office analysts had expected Disney's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," with Tim Allen returning as St. Nicholas, to win the weekend. It was No. 2 with $20 million, followed by the Paramount-DreamWorks animated comedy "Flushed Away" in third place with $19.1 million.

With great Internet buzz and a built-in following from "Da Ali G Show," "Borat" succeeded where another cyber-sensation, "Snakes on a Plane," failed. "Snakes" opened last summer to modest crowds despite months of Internet hoopla.

The raucous, raunchy "Borat" follows the adventures of British comedian Cohen's TV journalist from Kazakhstan in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels the United States, meets and mocks Americans and reports back to his home country.

"It is what you go to the theater for," said Hutch Parker, the studio's head of production. "You get that infectious, outrageous, interactive experience. There are people yelling at the screen, there are cheers."

"Borat" played in only 837 theaters, fewer than one-fourth the count for "The Santa Clause 3" and "Flushed Away." Averaging a whopping $31,511 a theater, "Borat" easily outdistanced "The Santa Clause 3," which averaged $5,784 in 3,458 cinemas and "Flushed Away," which averaged $5,152 in 3,707 theaters.

Fox plans to expand "Borat" to as many as 2,500 theaters this Friday.

"The Santa Clause 3" pits Allen's St. Nick against Jack Frost (Martin Short) as they battle for control of Christmas. "Flushed Away" features the voices of Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet in the story of a pampered pet mouse forced to make his way among sewer rats.

The two movies split the family audience, but their opening weekends were solid starts for the holiday season. Disney and Paramount expect their movies to hang tough through year's end, even with the Warner Bros. animated penguin tale "Happy Feet" coming just before Thanksgiving.

"The Thanksgiving holiday is going to be just rocking," said Disney head of distribution Chuck Viane.

The previous weekend's top movie, Lionsgate's horror sequel "Saw III," held up solidly at No. 4 with $15.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $60.1 million.

However, the strong crop of new movies and holdovers did not quite stack up to the same weekend a year ago, when "Chicken Little" opened at No. 1 with $40 million and "Jarhead" debuted at No. 2 with $27.7 million. This weekend's top 12 movies took in $116.2 million, down 3 percent from the same period last year.

 

[chazegee]

The word "Boratstan" was used I think by a Kazakh representative in the US. I honestly can't see sensible Kazakhs taking personal offence, any more than us Swedes felt insulted by the Swedish chef on the muppets

Thing is though, KZ is a young, and in some ways, quite fragile nation. It's coming up in the world, and it's not an established "big boy" like Sweeden. For it's first(for many people) immpression on the worlds stage, to be this film...., well it's quite a kick in the teeth, and for all the UK media to stand up and say "take it like a man" etc.... it's all a bit much.

Still, I've been reading KZ's national website, and they seem to dealing with it okay.

 

[pengaleng]

yo chaz! aint seen you on ere for time, hows it going...

 

[Greta]

I loved the way the film played with Midnight Cowboy.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/huge-borat-matinees-today/

 

[chazegee]

yo chaz! aint seen you on ere for time, hows it going...

alright me lurverr!
Just moved to Bristol, hope to see you at some xmas party

 

[urbaniser]

Havent watched it yet but eager to.
He is a very talented comedian and acts naturally without any artificial moves. The Borat movie surely is a hit.. apart from his other movies-the Ali G ones.

 

[jodal]

The Borat movie surely is a hit.. apart from his other movies-the Ali G ones.

Are you saying that Ali-G was a failure? 10mill in the UK?

 

[Lea]

Watched Borat over the weekend. It was funny but not that funny. You could tell that some of the scenes were set up unlike his TV programs so it wasn't as funny but still worth watching.

 

[moomoo]

Saw it yesterday - funniest film ever. End of.

Just got back from seeing it. Agreed

 

[spectrum48k]

Went to see it last night. I was expecting "5 star laughter"... and "one of the funniest films of all time". I think I laughed twice, maybe I should be laughing more...at least it's a dig at america... although didn't seem to be that cutting. yawnnnnn... Borat is a tad old hat, tho.. might have been fresh realeasing it a few years back?! I love moaning.

 

[Strawman]

It was funny but I came away dissapointed.

For me. Borat is funny when he shows up peoples prejudicies and idiocy. Most of the film was Borat acting the "stupid foreigner" with americans looking on in confusion.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It was ok, stupidly funny in places (I'm scarred for life by that naked wrestling scene! ) but spoilt by the odd attempt at a plot.

He should have kept to the docu style and left in some of the better deleted scenes. Better than the godawful Ali G film though...

 

[DexterTCN]

The naked hotel 'wrestling' was worth the price of the ticket.

My only problem was the short attention span scenes. With Ali G you got 10 good minutes to rip the piss out of each person/group.

 

[Julie]

I can only watch Borat through my hands because he makes me cringe so much

Me too, while howling with laughter

 

[Witness01]

Just seen it. I was in two minds about going...there's nothing worse than this kinda humour when it goes wrong. I pretty much laughed my arse off from begining to end...

I really, really hope that the pamela thing at the end was staged - I mean, it had to have been right? I'd be disappointed if it wasn't.

Funniest part of the film for me: polite dinner at that house in the deep south - returning from the toilet Very good

 

[spanglechick]

we saw it yesterday. monkeygrinder loved it. Me, I liked bits of it. So much of it was staged, which i thought was a shame. The genuine reactions of people to the character of Borat were the funniest bits of the film for me.

I don't know why there had to be so much stuff that was staged, some had to serve the story, but the telegram about his wife, for example, could easily have been done with a real hotel employee.

I'm a bit sad and get annoyed whern films don't follow their own internal logic - however bizarre, so the end of the film (who was doing the filming? where were they getting money from? how did they get to Orange County?) just lost me. Oh - and of course the Pammy thing was set up.

 

[Maltin]

Funniest part of the film for me: polite dinner at that house in the deep south - returning from the toilet Very good

I think that was my favourite bit as well.

I thought it was excellent too.

Unlike some posters' views in the thread in the general forum, I don't think the film is racist or aimed at laughing at someone just because they are from a different country. Where he is from is largely irrelevant.

I also don't think it is designed for you to laugh at the prejudiced views of the non-actors in the film.

I thought those moments were the moments, that the film was designed to elicit.

 

[Maltin]

I don't know why there had to be so much stuff that was staged, some had to serve the story, but the telegram about his wife, for example, could easily have been done with a real hotel employee.

I expected quite a lot of the film to be staged, but didn't find many scenes seemed staged. I guess the presence of a camera filming may give the game away sometimes, such as in the lift.

It would be good to know what was and wasn't set up but I felt the telegram scene you refer to seemed genuine.

I didn't see any need for it to be staged.

 

[spanglechick]

I expected quite a lot of the film to be staged, but didn't find many scenes seemed staged. I guess the presence of a camera filming may give the game away sometimes, such as in the lift.

It would be good to know what was and wasn't set up but I felt the telegram scene you refer to seemed genuine.

I didn't see any need for it to be staged.

it had reverse camera angles. either filmed simultaneously by two cameras, or filmed twice.

lots of that, sadly.

 

[Poi E]

I thought it was great. Some bits took the piss out of Americans (and for good reason), but I reckon a lot of the film was aimed at European people who would sit in cinema and scoff at the Americans who were almost unfailingly polite and tolerant.

 

[mtbskalover]

bloody fantastic film!! funniest thing ive seen in ages.
never cried so much....

highlight, either the wrestling or the jew chasing near the start.

it may be staged, a lot of we may have seen before on ali g, but its a film version of a t.v show character.

bloody hilarious, all you ba humbugers who didnt laugh, shame on you...

 

[Pie 1]

Very very funny, although tbh, it did lose it's steam after the wrestling bit eek: ) and his producer left him.

Crying with laughter bit: The horse falling over at the rodeo during the national anthem

 

[waverunner]

Not as funny as I'd hoped it would be. Possibly ruined by seeing the deleted scenes first which were fucking class But it was amusing. I liked the wrestling bit cos it was just so fucking disgusting Reckon the bit with Pamela Anderson must've been staged though...

 

[Witness01]

I thought it was great. Some bits took the piss out of Americans (and for good reason), but I reckon a lot of the film was aimed at European people who would sit in cinema and scoff at the Americans who were almost unfailingly polite and tolerant.

Good point.

TBH I didn't really see it as taking the piss outta americans...more, taking the piss outta people and conjuring up amusing scenerios.

 

[pno]

It was funny but I came away dissapointed.

For me. Borat is funny when he shows up peoples prejudicies and idiocy. Most of the film was Borat acting the "stupid foreigner" with americans looking on in confusion.

Totally Agree.

Some of the film also seemed too 'scripted'

 

[girasol]

article about extras used in the film

 

[D]

It's his worst imo. Barely funny and really who cares about taking the piss out of the fashion industry when they do it so well themselves?

Bruno is my favorite character! The only who one didn't become boringly predictable after time.

With Ali G we get the satisfaction of watching him expose people in positions of power. With Borat, well, it becomes incredibly predictable after a while and the people are just everyday people. An anti-semitic joke here, a misogynist comment there, something about Uzbekistan, something about sex.

That said, some of the scenes in the movie are extremely funny.

I loved the national anthem, the running of the Jew, the release of the chicken, the revival (though that didn't have much to do with Borat himself).

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Saw it earlier tonight. OMFG the wrestling! I'm not sure I'm happy about having that burned into my brain for the rest of my life, but by god it was funny. I got a stitch in my side about then, and my pal got a bit of nacho stuck in his sinus.

 

[Orang Utan]

Very very very very funny. Very very very very very silly.