In 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen’s satirical brand of comedy in which he dressed up as different stereotypical characters and exposed unknowing politicians and others in hilarious interviews/situations broke into the mainstream with the film Borat. Now, Borat is back with a new film, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan on Amazon Prime Video, and its first trailer is full of pretty much exactly the same things that the original movie had: The key difference is people recognize Borat now.
The film, as the obnoxiously long title suggests, is about Borat returning to America, except this time he’s going to give his daughter as a gift to make up for the bad things he did in the first film. Obviously, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm is tackling plenty of current events with Borat learning about the pandemic for the first time and attending a rally where Mike Pence was speaking. There’s definitely some humor left to be milked out of the “stunt” comedy of Borat, and much of what is going on in America needs ruthless mocking. However, the times, and comedy, have definitely changed since 2006, and it’s not clear if this will still hold up.
The Borat Subsequent Moviefilm trailer announced an Oct. 23 release date and fake Twitter account for the country of Kazakhstan, which has come out in support of Donald Trump. The film was secretly filmed during the pandemic and Amazon scooped it up for release. In different times the studio probably would have given it a theatrical release, but it does feel like perfect streaming fodder on Amazon Prime Video.