Borat 2 (Jason Woliner, October 23, 2020) Movie • Page 13

I think one of the worst parts of the Rudy thing was him patting her hip in the bedroom while she was taking the mic off. Grossed me out.

 

Yeah that made me cringe. Yuck

 

This was not good.

The best parts of the first Borat film were when the cameras caught people hanging themselves with their own prejudices, ignorance, and biases. The plot was just a framing device to get to the different interactions; a function for a greater purpose.

The problem here is that it relies far too much on its plot; it is ultimately not that interesting or engaging. It reminds me of clearly choreographed text message conversations that are meant to be interpreted as miscommunication between people leading to humorous outcomes. The film admits that the Borat character can't really work due to his popularity, so they just lean more on the scripted parts that were never great to begin with.

The movie also continues the Bruno tradition of centering its interactions around acting inappropriate and capturing the reactions of the participants. Where Borat captured many people acting absurd despite talking to a stranger and knowing they are being filmed, here we see more broad shock comedy. There is not a lot to glean from filming people being disturbed that a girl is dancing with period blood everywhere, nor is there much commentary from dressing up in a Trump mask and running around with a girl over your shoulder.

Borat was also a product of the era. Borat worked so well because the movie was made in the middle of the rampant xenophobia of the Bush Administration. There is still plenty of xenophobia (and most people cannot differentiate Kazakhstan from Afghanistan), but anti-Muslim attitudes have not been the defining conflict of the Trump Administration that they were in the Bush Administration.

When the movie works, like when the Instagram influencer volunteers such retrograde gender views, we see what could have been. Unfortunately, you can really only trick people who were too young for the first film, too old, or culturally unaware, and that limits your options. A mostly scripted fictional Borat film is not a cutting look into American attitudes and behaviors, but just broad humor.

 

The part where he talks to the elderly Holocaust survivor was genuinely moving

 

There were still a few moments of ridiculous people. The part with the pastor was incredible.

 

Or really just the fact that the salesperson just goes along with it when he’s talking about putting girls in cages and gassing Jews. Like how do you not walk away or ask him to leave or whatever?

 

Is there a better comedy sequel than this? Maybe Christmas vacation..that’s about it.

 

The Jackass sequels
The two Austin Powers sequels
Waynes World 2
The Naked Gun sequels
Gremlins 2
Shrek 2
22 Jump Street
Clerks 2
Addams Family Values


Many, many films haha

 

there are definitely better ones than this but this is also for sure up there as one of the good ones

 

this was absolutely better than the austin powers sequels

 

Yeah, let’s not get too carried away by referring to “Goldmember” as “good.”

 

what you mean you think this was better than the high quality films that introduced us to beloved character Fat Bastard

 

Austin Powers 2 is a classic! This site man

 

With that being said, my point was more that this wasn’t very good

 

That character aside, I still think it’s pretty funny.

 

It’s been said many times, but comedy sequels are tough to pull off without it being just “the same jokes with a bigger budget.”

Tetra outlined the many reasons I could see someone not liking it because there’s not a ton going on underneath the surface compared to the first. For me, it worked because I laughed a lot and Maria Bakalova’s performance is amazing.

Unlike so many 10+ year old comedy sequels, it did some new stuff and despite having a different director, felt very much in line with the previous one aesthetically and with the rhythm of the jokes. After sitting through “Dumb and Dumber To” and “Zoolander 2,” my bar is low enough that this is a success.

 

A....great success?

 

22 jump street

 

Zoolander 2 was truly awful. How did no one speak up during filming?

 

I remember feeling that way with Anchorman 2 as well.

 

Yeah regardless of better comedy film sequels existing (like 22 Jump Street), this was still really good

 

I’m just glad someone said Wayne’s world 2

 

Anchorman 2 is good. The scene with Champ at his restaurant 10/10. Shark song 10/10.

 

Yeah I never got the hate for Anchorman 2 at all, I thought it was solid for a belated comedy sequel. Really inspired move to make it about the rise of the 24-hour news cycle.