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Home (Re)Viewing: Borat - I (don’t really) like!
Long before Superman made you believe a man could fly, Disney made you believe a boy could fly. That’s the highlight of this week’s new DVD releases, but first, onto the new release wall:
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: Borat was one of those mini-phenomenons I admired but did not love. Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen is a very talented and particularly unhinged performer, and the idea for the movie (lovable rube unwittingly exposes America’s sins) is inspired, but this is one of the funniest comedies of all time? Hardly. Parts of it are hilarious, but the movie was like an above-average SNL skit. Once the basic joke was told, it got tired, just like all that endless quoting of “sexytime” and “romance explosion” by people who ended up looking as foolish as the movie’s victims. GRADE: C+
Fast Food Nation: Richard Linklater’s ambitious attempt to fictionalize Eric Schlosser’s best-seller into a Traffic-like narrative never takes off, because the film never stays with any of the stories long enough for any of them to register. Consequently, when the “shocking” slaughterhouse footage hits, it’s not all that shocking. This is definitely a case where the book trumps the movie. GRADE: C
From the Catalog
Peter Pan: This is the real reason to shell out DVD dollars this week. The movie hasn’t aged quite as well as some other Disney classics, due mostly to that dated “red man” song, but the rest of the film has pixie dust to spare. The new 2-disc set is filled with DIsney’s bountiful extras, although the world could do without that preview for the upcoming CGI Tinkerbell movie. DOWN with putting hand-drawn characters in CG! Arrrrrrrrr! GRADE for the movie: A
King Kung Fu: I know nothing about this film, but to quote estimable geek Harry Knowles, “A Chinese Gorilla that knows karate! This could be - the greatest film of all time.”
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: On Video/DVD
Comments
By Greg Hunter
March 7, 2007 6:50 AM | Link to this
Maybe the film is only a classic for this time period, but I doubt it. I have watched the movie about 6 times and there is always something new to pick up. It is laugh out loud funny and makes me want to cry as rips open the racist underbelly of America (Greatest Country in the World). Like Airplane!, the sight gags are great. It took me the 2nd viewing to figure out the bear. Very Nice!