Borat does America

In theaters Friday: A Good Year, Harsh Times and Stranger Than Fiction.

New on DVD: Cars and Little Man.

What happened to Russell Crowe? A Good Year may be the first trailer that literally put me to sleep. It was like Ambien in moving pictures. I’m yawning just typing about it. Crowe was on such a hot streak between The Insider and Master and Commander, but really, this new film looks like crap. Boring, pointless crap. Better, though, should be Stranger Than Fiction, that’s the kind of dippy, dry comedy I can really get behind. Will Ferrell seems to have toned down his annoying meter for this role, a move that has served him well in the past (see: Winter Passing). Plus, it’s directed by wunderkind Marc Forster of Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland fame. Stranger Than Fiction looks less than perfect, but certainly better than average. Harsh Times, unfortunately looks just like Training Day Part 2, and surprise, surprise it’s got the same screenwriter, David Ayer. I’m a pretty big fan of Christian Bale, but it just seems like he’s slumming in this. And it’s really hard for me to take Eva Longoria seriously. If you’ve ever seen an interview with her, you know what I mean.

But, Christian Bale was brilliant in the wizard’s duel of The Prestige, which I saw over the weekend. Go see this movie. It’s a masterwork of suspense, rivalry, and obsession, and director Christopher Nolan turns the tables and the screws of the plot over and over to great effect. It’s a long movie, but it never drags. It just pulls you deeper into the pathos and personalities of these two warring magicians played by Bale and Hugh Jackman. Rounding out the accomplished cast are Bale’s Batman butler Michael Caine as the engineer behind the magician’s stunts, Scarlett Johansson as Jackman’s assistant turned spy, and David Bowie as eccentric inventor Nikolas Tesla. Tesla, a fascinating real-life figure who feuded with Thomas Edison, basically invented radio and studied everything from electric current to satellites to military superweapons like the “deathray.” The story of Tesla versus Edison definitely deserves a movie in its own right, and is touched on in The Prestige. Read more about Tesla here.

If you’ve seen the trailer for Borat—and especially his countless Internet clips to be found like time-capsules of long forgotten and very taboo racial and sexual satire—then you’ve been given the gist of the Kazakhstani reporter’s superficial shtick, and the dry backhanded humor he draws from the prejudices and peculiarities of real people who aren’t exactly in on the joke. That’s not to say the feature length version isn’t worth seeing, because it is. I haven’t laughed that hard in the theater in a long time. It’s just that if you’re looking for more than 80 minutes of the type of clips you’ve already seen, you might be let down a little. The whole isn’t necessarily greater than the sum of the parts. But the parts are still hilarious.

Borat introducing himself to strangers on Manhattan streets (and abruptly invading their personal space), egging drunk frat boys into admitting they think the U.S. should have slaves (and that women should be among them), crooning his own version of the national anthem at a deep south rodeo, and trying to literally “bag” Pamela Anderson at a book signing are all unavoidably funny moments. There’s plenty of crude humor and visuals to go around too—particularly a nude fight scene staged between Borat and his hefty manager that begins in their hotel room and tumbles out into the elevator and eventually into a packed convention hall. It goes on far too long, and, as far as cinema goes, was one of the more grotesque things I’ve ever turned my head away from. But that scene aside, Borat is a great ride that does better at poking fun at some of the absurdities of America and of the prejudices that still ferment here than anyone outside of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and heralds the arrival of a new comedic superstar in Sacha Baron Cohen, who’ll never again be confused with champion figure skater Sasha Cohen.

Newsflash: Sylvester Stallone to quit acting. I thought he quit acting a long time ago. Hey-oh!

Get ready to see Jude Law in a cheesy, cash-in blockbuster. The British cad who owes Baton Rouge a high-five for hosting the finals of his Nannygate scandal during the filming of All The King’s Men, says he’s nearly broke after his divorce from Sadie Frost and cannot afford to take time off from moviemaking. Of course someone like Jude Law saying he’s broke probably just means he has to light his ciggy with burning 50s instead of 100s.

Jerry Seinfeld has come up with a great idea for his Bee Movie trailers. He’s put together live action clips of the actors trying to reenact scenes from the upcoming animated movie in giant insect costumes. Hilarious. Check out this first trailer with cameos by Eddie Izzard and Chris Rock.

And finally, the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale is getting solid advance reviews. Read up on the advance buzz here. Daniel Craig debuts as Bond on Nov. 17.