4. Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
Sacha Baron Cohen is a wonderful comedy actor, and despite the genius of Ali G and Bruno, Borat is surely his greatest character to date. The 2006 picture, which was an enormous success, is one of the cleverest, side-splittingly funny films you are likely to see. Borat Sagdiyev is a television personality from Kazakhstan, who is sent to the United States of America to make a documentary on, as he calls it, the "Greatest Country in the World". He meets unwitting members of the public, including politicians, who have no idea it's Baron Cohen working his magic, and the results are hysterical. Whether it be the spoof national anthem he sings in Texas, his inappropriate behaviour at a middle-class dinner party or a naked wrestle with his assistant - arguably the most disgusting scene in film history - it really is laugh-a-minute. The Americans are not shown off in a good light, but who really cares about that? Baron Cohen is so utterly convincing that you sometimes completely forget it's him, and his comic timing and visual comedy are a sight to behold. It was a movie that divided opinion at the time, but frankly if you can't just sit back and find it amusing, something's not quite right with you.
