Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: Amazon Prime Video Movie Review
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova/ Irina Nowak
Director: Jason Woliner
How you will feel about the return of Borat in a film that ends with an exhortation to "Vote or you will be execute" will depend largely on whether you feel Baron Cohen's desire to expose the US underbelly is worthy, or whether it's past its best given the fact America does this daily now in 2020.
Whereas the 2006 film Borat:Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan felt fresh thanks to its unscripted vignettes and interactions with the US public, the sequel has a harder path to tread.
In the sequel, Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat begins life in a gulag having heaped shame on Kazakhstan with his previous antics. Taken out of jail to perform a mission to deliver Kazakhstan's minister of culture and No1 porno star Johnny Monkey to US Vice President Mike Pence, Borat sets out back to the US.
But on arrival, Borat discovers most people know him (a scene that feels a little too scripted, but reeks of the mankini craze ensuring no further anonymity). So forced into a series of disguises, Borat finds his plans changed when his neglected daughter (Nowak) has smuggled her way into the states.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan may have its sights on satire, but many of the targets feel way too obvious and the jokes two decades too late.
Relying on lazy stereotypes about Jews and periods, Baron Cohen and a team of 7 other writers (one of the film's biggest shocks) go low as they go beserk in the US. Puerile jokes about calling the US President McDonald Trump and naming one of his sons Jeffrey Epstein feel lazy; gags about going to a synagogue to wait the next mass shooting and dressing as a stereotyped Jew complete with long nose and money bags in hand simply cement a feeling that Baron Cohen may have lost the ability to shock in a 2020 that's robbed many of so much.
Yet, in moments when Baron Cohen gets it right (and his co-star Nowak as his daughter turned reporter) and they avoid the obvious targets for more subtle approaches, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan actually delivers some gold.
From the scandal enveloping Rudy Giuliani seemingly being caught with his hands down his pants to quarantining with two US conspiracy theorists who believe Hilary Clinton drinks blood, the Borat movie depressingly shows how little America has moved on, and how further entrenched the misguided beliefs have become.
It's here the Borat sequel finds its strength, but it's also a long wait to get there - for every hit, there is a prodigious number of misses or soft targets.
Some would say the crassness hints at slights on patriarchal views, and the inclusion of the daughter shows Baron Cohen's responded to the MeToo world - but in truth, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan isn't as tight or as strong as it could and should have been.
One thing is obvious though - in some cases, it's not lost its ability to shock. But in a 2020 where every little thing shocks us so much that we've become numb, the question remains for Baron Cohen - where does satire go when it's already prevalent in real life?
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan streams on Amazon Prime Video from Friday October 23.
