Certificate: 15
Running time: 97 minutes
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Maria Bakalova
Directed by: Jason Woliner
The story: Borat agrees to travel back to America to bring Vice President Mike Pence a gift. But things don't quite go to plan when his daughter turns up instead of the gift he was expecting.
The verdict: Before I begin this review, I think that perhaps it is worth noting that I am not a particular fan of Borat. That is not to say that I don't like him, but his brand of humour and genre of comedy is not one that I would necessarily choose first if given the choice. Thus, I am aware that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm will be a lot more appealing to fans of his and possibly play differently - I can see how big fans have the potential to love this film as it's Borat as they know and love him.
With a film such as this, the first thing that anyone will ask is this - is it funny? The answer to that is yes and no. There are definitely lots of laugh out loud moments and as you would expect the gags are toe-curling and explicit. However, there are other jokes that fall a bit flat and overall I do think that the first film was funnier. Although it is great that the first film was such a success, unfortunately this has meant that Borat has become too recognisable and the undercover sequences that were so funny before are now a lot harder to pull off.
The addition of Maria Bakalova as Borat's daughter Tutar is a good one and it could even be argued that she has better gags than Borat himself. Both Baron Cohen and Bakalova put in good performances and I think they work well together here - their comedic chemistry and timing is perfect.
Underlying this film is of course a political angle and I did think that it is done cleverly. There aren't any blatant political statements made, but enough is shown to make it clear that there is something not quite right about Trump's America. The only fly in the ointment of this is that I'm not sure that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm has the impact that it wants to have - those who dislike Trump will continue to dislike him, those that support him will continue to support him and if anyone was indifferent then I don't think that anything in this film will change that. There is a scene that features Rudy Giuliani that most people will probably have already read about in the news. Whilst this scene is shocking, I am saddened to say that I also do not think that this will have any ramifications or at least the ramifications that it should.
Overall, I found Borat Subsequent Moviefilm engaging and watchable. I would definitely recommend it for Borat fans but for me it didn't have quite the impact that I was hoping - both with its message and its humour.
The rating: ★★★
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