By Jack Kelly ‘21
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, known for his gut-busting portrayals of characters like Ali-G, Bruno, and Gen. Aladeen, is back again. This time he portrays the character Borat, a Kazakh journalist let on the loose in America.
“Borat 2” is the sequel to the first Borat released in 2006. It follows a different premise from the first movie, but the hijinks and antics are present throughout.
It wouldn’t be a Sacha Baron Cohen movie without controversy, however. A simple Google search will return millions of results: “Sacha Baron Cohen hits back at Rudy Giuliani over ‘Borat’ scene,” “‘Borat 2’: How Sacha Baron Cohen’s Unsuspecting Targets Feel About Being in the Movie,” etc. Specifically, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was under fire after screenshots from the movie were leaked pre-release. They appeared to show him acting inappropriately with an interviewer. Giuliani’s camp shut down any and all allegations of wrongdoing while Sacha Baron Cohen left it up to his viewers to make up their minds saying, “I mean, I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, so I would just say, see it and make your own mind up.”
This kind of hype and controversy can drive anyone to watch. Intrigued, I asked two of my friends from the senior class who had seen the movie and asked them what they thought about it.
Senior Sean Deane said, “Although it wasn’t as good as the first movie, I really enjoyed Borat 2. It had much of the silly humor that made the first movie a hit. The bit just didn’t work this time around. Everyone recognized the Borat character, so 90% of the movie was a setup or a skit.”
Senior Michael Lynch said, “I think it showed just how gullible our country has become.”
You can’t have an opinion without watching the movie, though. Because of the pandemic, “Borat 2” was not released in theaters. It is exclusively available through Amazon Prime Video. As Borat would say, “Is nice!”
Sources:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13143964/
https://variety.com/2020/film/features/borat-2-cameos-sacha-baron-cohen-1234815507/
https://uproxx.com/tv/borat-2-deleted-scene-sacha-baren-cohen/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/26/business/kazakhstan-embraces-borat.html
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