The Truth is Out! Borat is not nearly as funny as you think it is!

Sacha Baron Cohen, the 'genius' behind Ali G, made a worldwide hit with Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Making Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

It's a film made in Sacha Baron Cohen's signature style. He adopts an outrageous alter-ego and uses it to lull people into making candid videos with him.

It worked hilariously with Ali G, the 'yoof' TV host of the Ali G show. But in Borat, it's a less easy result. Sacha Baron Cohen heads to America to make fun of American society with the intention of 'exposing' it's anti Semitic and racist roots. But instead he just looks like an obnoxious twit who pisses off a variety of decent enough people - and chats to one or two racist or homophobic nutcases who end being funnier on-screen than Cohen could ever hope to be.

The character of Borat is an obnoxious, Jew-hating reporter for a fictional Kazakhstan TV station. He comes to America with a chicken in his luggage (which escapes on the NY Subway) and attempts to kiss every New Yorker he sees. How Sacha Baron Cohen didn't get shot, I'm not sure. It was meant to be funny, but instead just showed an obnoxious man invading a variety of people's personal spaces and being very lucky not to get clocked as a result.

He washes in the toilet. He poops in the bushes outside his hotel. He mocks feminists: "Women have the brains of squirrels" and makes 'hilarious' jokes about rape.

And politely, American after American in this video nod and explain meekly that his opinions are wrong.

I'm not quite sure what this film intends to do. It puts Americans in cringeworthy situations and generally they come across as patient, understanding fellows who have probably been given a horribly bad impression of foreigners. This isn't comedy. It's torture.

It's like Beadle's About or Candid Camera without the: "Smile, you're on camera" bit at the end.

As funny and talented as Sacha Baron Cohen might be, I think Borat is HUGELY overrated. It's just one guy acting like an asshole and labelling decent people's tolerance of his outrageous behaviour as being somehow complicit in it.

There are one or two victims who reveal their own racist attitudes... But holding them up as an example of American culture is like claiming the BNP represent all Brits.

The surprising thing is that I'm very much in the minority - most people raved about this film. I'm not quite sure why they liked it so much. There were some funny touches - like "The Running of the Jew" and the real reaction the New Yorkers gave to Borat's attempt to kiss them and befriend them, the best reaction being: "You want to know what my name is? My name is mind your own f**king business."

However most of it was just cringeworthy and embarassing. It was an hour and a half of cheap shots. I was very disappointed. Not so much in the movie itself - but in how succesful it's been.

At the end of the day, I think the winning formula is nothing less than Shadenfreuder - the delicious enjoyment of other people's suffering. And as much as I complain about what a terrible and unfunny movie this was, it's sent Sacha Baron Cohen laughing all the way to the bank!