The Most Recent Musing On Movies

Here's Musing on Movies from January 2nd.

What movie did you see most recently in the theatre? What was the last movie you watched at home (on television or DVD/VHS)? What did you think of these two films? Would you recommend them to others? Why or why not?

In the theater, it was Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. I can't believe I didn't blog about this; I could have sworn I did, but a desultory search of the archive reveals nothing. (Ah...it turns out that I did in fact write a review of the movie, but it was incoherent and I threw it away without replacing it.)

The short take on Borat is this: it's extremely funny. I would recommend it, if you like that sort of thing. Look up Borat on YouTube for exactly what "that sort of thing" is. There are tons of examples.

The slightly-longer take is this: it's extremely funny in a cringe-inducing way, and it shows two things simultaneously. First, it shows that there are a lot of stupid assholes out there. Second, it shows how far people will go to accommodate a dotty, clueless foreigner. Cohen is brilliant at drawing things out of people, but at the same time he does bait a few people into saying things that they probably wouldn't ordinarily say. I do recommend it, even if just for the epically memorable fight between Borat and his producer in their hotel room.

At home, the last movie I watched was an old John Wayne "Three Mesquiteers" picture called Pals of the Saddle. It was okay, although the cowboy with the ventriloquist's dummy was a bit bizarre. (Was that Crash Corrigan? Could've been.) It was a pretty standard B-movie plot: Foreign Agents are plotting to steal Something Important and Our Heroes must stop them. I would neither recommend it nor not recommend it, really. It's another "if you like that sort of thing" kind of movie. I got sucked in.