Review of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020) by Drlowdon — 27 Oct 2020

Having humiliated Kazahkstan during his original movie, journalist Borat Sagdiyev has been imprisoned in a gulag. Fourteen years later, the country's Premier releases him, with a mission to deliver Kazakh Minister of Culture Johnny the Monkey to President Donald Trump in an attempt to redeem the nation.

I personally enjoyed the first Borat movie, but this sequel never really seems to know what it wants to be. Occasionally it takes aim at the current state of the US Government and those that still support it, but it never really shows us anything we didn’t already know and it doesn’t have anything particularly insightful to say. In fact, for the most part it seems content just to make jokes about antisemitism and the treatment of women in Kazakhstan, neither of which seem to actually be based in reality. The controversy around the scene featuring Rudy Giuliani certainly seems to have garnered attention but overall it all just feels a bit lazy. In the end it is only really Maria Bakalova, as Borat’s daughter, that saves the movie with her energetic performance and willingness to put herself in situations many people simply wouldn’t have the nerve for.