I would be lying if I said the movie Borat wasn’t something of a guilty pleasure. Sacha Baron Cohen’s hidden camera comedy where he improved encounters with numerous Americans, often in a manner that was embarrassing either to himself/his character or to the people spending time with him (some of whom may or may not have deserved it). The movie was crude, disgusting, and quite frankly, hilarious. Now here we are with a sequel, many years after the fact, that, well, did anyone need or want it? And can Cohen pull off a sequel when the character became such a hugely recognized figure?
We got one anyway, running on Amazon Prime Video, and it certainly is Borat again, but I will not be typing out the fill title of this movie any time soon.
After spending time in a chain gang for embarrassing his country, Kazakhstani TV journalist Borat Sagdiyev is dispatched back to America to deliver a gift to a prominent member of the American government. That is all I am going to say about that. However, a trip home reveals to Borat he had a daughter he didn’t know about named Tutar (Bulgaria actress Maria Bakalova), and events transpire where Tutar is there with her father in America. Again, that is all I am going to say about that. Borat’s version of Kazakhstan is among other things notoriously sexist and anti-semetic. Tutar, for her part, goes along with Kazakhstani tradition…for now. Americans, of course, have different ideas on such things.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm made some headlines for some scenes involving Rudy Guiliani, and yeah, they don’t put the former mayor of New York in a good light. But beyond that, how can you make a Borat movie since he’s so recognizable now? The answer is to actually make that part of the narrative. Of course, it also meant I was wondering more than before how many of the people meeting with Borat were in on the joke. And, quite frankly, that feeling did make the second movie less funny as a result. Some folks seemed to know for one reason or another what was really going on.
On the other hand, Cohen and Bakalova actually had some good father/daughter chemistry going on. It helps that Bakalova is a virtual unknown in America, but she manages to match Cohen for the “Kazakhstani” behavior, accent, and language. The two’s conversations actually sound like a real language this time around, and her inclusion actually makes for an added dimension of charm to the movie. When Borat Subsequent Moviefilm really works, as it does from time-to-time, it does so because the two of them are playing off each other and some person who clearly had no idea who they were. Yeah, I may have doubted some of the people involved were truly innocent bystanders, but when I wasn’t, I have to admit that Borat is still something of a guilty pleasure.
Grade: B-
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