August 31, 2006
The Best Offense Is a Funny Movie
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Baron Cohen stars as his third incarnation (after Ali G and Bruno) in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." In it, Borat, the intrepid Kazakhstani TV reporter, is sent off to make a documentary of America, where he becomes obsessed with finding and marrying Pamela Anderson.
The film opens Nov. 3, but according to advance hints, it is guaranteed to enrage Jews, gays, blacks, women, cowboys, Christians and college boys -- not to mention Kazakhstanis.
In the meanwhile, you can catch Baron Cohen now in "Talladega Nights," where, as France's Formula One champ Jean Gerard, he challenges NASCAR idol Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) for the trophy.
Baron Cohen sports the thickest French accent this side of Paris, and in his first meeting with good 'ol Southern boy Ricky Bobby, offers to drop out of the race on one condition.
"Eeef you keess me," Gerard says.
The movie is a lip-to-lip competition between two very different comic improvisational styles, and on the track as on the laugh meter, it's a bumper-to-bumper race.
In real life, the 34-year-old Baron Cohen was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in London, the son of a menswear shop owner and an Israeli mother. He remains a religious, kosher-observant Jew.
He studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge, showing real potential for an academic career, and wrote his thesis on Jewish involvement in the American civil rights movement.
Coming up for the actor after "Borat" is "Dinner for Schmucks," in which "an extraordinarily stupid man possesses the ability to ruin the life of anyone who spends more than a few minutes in his company."
After that, it's "Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill," in which our hero plays a young Chasidic Jew who forms a band with an aging rock 'n' roller.
