Borat Subsequent Moviefilm review

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: 

THIS SEQUEL IS “VERY NICE”! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

AMAZON STUDIOS

Sacha Baron Cohen is back in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

 

            Everyone’s favorite journalist and TV personality from Kazakhstan, Borat returns to America to cause more trouble and expose the repulsive and hilarious sides of American culture in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the unexpected sequel to the 2006 comedy smash hit, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Borat was initially a character created by Sacha Baron Cohen (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Bruno, The Dictator) for the TV series, Da Ali G Show which Cohen starred in as the titular character, that ran from 2000-2004 but it wasn’t until 2006 when Borat gained mainstream attention with the release of the first film directed by Seinfeld’s Larry Charles. 

            There have been comedies before that involved real people in front of the camera interacting with the characters such as the Jackass movies, but I’ll argue that Borat was the first of its kind to make a huge impact on not just films, but pop-culture in general with that style of humor. Now, fans of Da Ali G Show and newcomers were able to enjoy a slice of Borat’s craziness on the big screen…and boy, did they ever? 

The film was a huge hit with both critics and audiences, pulling in $262.6 million on an $18 million budget, and even earned Baron Cohen a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor-Musical or Comedy as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination. Yeah, a movie where Sacha Baron Cohen and a fat guy fight each other naked in a hotel that spills out into a hallway, crowded elevator, and a packed convention ballroom was nominated for an Oscar. 

            Borat was a phenomenon and became a pop culture icon with many people still watching and quoting it to this very day and plenty of copycats (Remember Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa? Yeah, me neither!). In fact, Sacha Baron Cohen tried to recreate the success of Borat with the 2009 film Bruno (Which was based on another Da Ali G Show character), but despite earning a relatively positive response from critics it didn’t quite bring in the box-office profits that the studio was hoping for, which led to Cohen starring in more mainstream films such as the polarizing but still very funny The Dictator in 2012 and the abysmal 2016 disaster The Brothers Grimsby. 

            Now, fourteen years after the release of the first film, we have Borat Subsequent Moviefilm which premiered on Amazon Prime Video and takes the 10 Cloverfield Lane route and announces its release only a month or two before it comes out. While I don’t think it’s quite on par with the first movie, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is still an irreverent and outrageously funny movie that doesn’t go anywhere near political correctness and proves that Sacha Baron Cohen’s style of comedy isn’t going stale anytime soon. 

            The film follows Kazakh journalist and TV personality, Borat Sagdiyev (Baron Cohen) being released from prison for bringing shame to Kazakhstan after the release of his “Moviefilm” and return to America to carry out a secret mission to offer his daughter Tutar (Maria Bakalova-Gomorrah) as a bride to Vice President, Mike Pence in an attempt to redeem the nation. Just like in the previous film, Borat and Tutar go on a life-changing road trip across America, along the way they get into all kinds of trouble like participating in a father and daughter dance at a debutante ball that ultimately ends with menstrual blood, crashing CPAC disguised as Trump, and even quarantining with two Trump supporting men during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

            However, in spite of Kazakhstan’s “Interesting” rules and laws, Borat learns that maybe, just maybe Tutar among several other women are so much more than just objects you lock up in cages, and Tutar discovers that perhaps those sexist teachings by her father aren’t all that accurate. 

            Overall, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is the comedy we need right now in these crazy times with Sacha Baron Cohen exposing the dark and repulsive sides of American culture with downright hilarious results. In an age where entertainment is overly P.C. it’s refreshing when a film comes along that pushes the censorship boundaries and fully embraces its R rating in the raunchiest and most over-the-top ways possible, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is such a movie just like its 2006 predecessor. 

You name it, constant sex jokes, crude and irreverent comments, graphic nudity, the style of humor you would expect from Borat, and even an outrageous spoof of animated Disney films that had me laughing on the floor with Donald Trump portraying Prince Charming and grabbing Melania Trump’s (as a Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty-type Disney Princess)…well, you know. Without giving anything away, the eventual twist in this movie I also found extremely funny and clever. 

Crude jokes aside, this movie surprisingly also has a lot of heart, it’s basically a coming-of-age story tucked inside of a Borat movie, both Tutar and Borat go through arcs throughout the film and learn valuable lessons and make changes by the end. It’s not often for something or someone like Borat to make me verbally say “Awwwww!” but this movie somehow found a way. 

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is my “Go-To” comedy for the time being because this along with the South Park Pandemic Special I just reviewed show that in these dark and crazy times sometimes we just need to laugh at all this shit. Sacha Baron Cohen continues to bring his wacky style of humor and meld it with relevant social commentary to which you just want to stand up and salute the Kazakhstan National Anthem (The Borat version of it). 

Please, go watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm or I will be execute!