Sacha Baron Cohen's brand of humour is an acquired taste.
Either you will love it or you will not be able to stand it.
On one level, with its improvised humour and exaggerated characterisation Baron Cohen's comic creations like Ali G, Bruno or Borat are pure commedia dell'arte.
On another, they fit right into the mould of the classic Shakespearean fool - using their apparent stupidity to shine a light on the stupidity of those around them.
As Ali G, Bruno or Borat, Baron Cohen has duped many public figures and ordinary citizens on TV or in feature films.
In doing so, he has shone a light on their prejudices and their sheer insanity.
Fourteen years ago, the comedian and actor picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Larry Charles' mockumentary 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'.
Borat, a caricature of a naive Kazhak journalist, was originally created for Granada Talk TV's youth programme 'F2F' in Britain in 1996 and was revived by him for Channel 4's 'Da Ali G' show.
Raised in a small village in his beloved Kazakhstan, his character speaks in stilted English and spouts outrageous sexist, anti-Semitic views (although the native tongue he purports to use is actually Hebrew).
In the 2006 hit film built around him, Borat sets off on an American adventure with his producer on a mission to make 'Baywatch' star Pamela Anderson his wife.
Along the way, he outrages fans at a Virginia rodeo during the singing of the national anthem, embarrasses attendees at a high society dinner in Alabama, shocks feminists during an interview in New York with his line of questioning, wreaks havoc while appearing on a live show on an ABC news affiliate in Mississippi and exposes the dodgy behaviour of fraternity boys from the University of South Carolina.
All of these encounters with real people propelled the film to the top of the box office and earned the film praise.
However in the Amazon Prime sequel 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' the initial joke is that despite its $262 million box office success around the world, the original film shamed Borat's homeland.
As a result, Borat was incarcerated in a labour camp for 14 years but is suddenly summoned by his authoritarian government to redeem himself by using his knowledge of the United States to curry the favour of President Donald Trump's administration.
The basic plan is to do this by presenting US Vice President Mike Pence with a gift, Johnny the Monkey.
Johnny is a real monkey and a celebrity in Kazakhstan, thanks to his prominent role in pornographic movies.
However, as part of the deal, Borat gets to return to his home village where he discovers the locals and his own family have turned against him except for his 15 year old daughter, Maria Bakalova's Tutar who lives in a barn and dreams of being like Princess Melania.
Borat sets off for the US with a huge crate containing Johnny the Monkey, only to discover Tutar is inside and has eaten the animal.
In a bit of a panic, he contacts the Kazhak Government to relay the news about the demise of Johnny the Monkey but he manages to quell their anger by proposing that they offer Tutar as a gift to Mike Pence instead.
As with the first Borat film, what follows is a series of set pieces that will curl your toes and, at times, have you wondering if they are real or are fictional set-ups.
Borat and Tutar go to a Father and Daughter's ball in Macon, Georgia and are disgraced in a gag that involves menstruation.
In another sequence, they visit a South Carolina anti-abortion pregnancy clinic after Tutar swallows a cupcake with a baby decoration on top.
Tgey tell the stunned Pastor running the clinic that Borat has put a baby inside his daughter and want rid of it.
In one of the most jaw dropping sections of the film, Borat falls in with some Q Anon conspiracy theorists who shelter him during the Coronavirus lockdown and write a song with him about Barack Obama being a traitor.
Disguised as a bluegrass singer, he sings the 'Wuhan Flu' song to an enthusiastic crowd at a right-wing rally in Washington State who love its chorus about injecting Obama with the Covid flu and beheading journalists "like the Saudis do".
Other sequences see Tutar extolling the virtues of female masturbation at an understandably embarrassed gathering of Republican women in Florida and Borat gatecrashing a CPAC gathering and shocking Republicans by initially dressibg up as a Klansman as he enters the building and then interrupting a speech by Mike Pence while disguised as Donald Trump.
The most controversial sequence is unquestionably a mock TV interview with Donald Trump's attorney and right wing media attack dog, Rudy Giuliani in which the former New York Mayor is flattered by Tutar and talked into following her into a hotel bedroom.
Giuliani, who has in recent weeks been throwing sleazy allegations at the son of Trump's opponent Joe Biden, comes off really badly in a sequence that will be debated for years to come.
The timing of the release of director Jason Woliner and Baron Cohen's film is clearly no accident.
With cinemas shut in some countries due to the second wave of Coronavirus, Baron Cohen and his director have clearly settled on a deal with Amazon Prime to get the film seen by as many as people as possible prior to the November 3 election in the US.
However it is hard not to reach the conclusion that even if they are hoping it will repel a lot of American voters from supporting Donald Trump and the Republicans, its impact is likely to bemore limited.
'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' mostly preaches to the liberal converted, who will not be surprised by the extreme views expressed by Q Anon enthusiasts and will be amused by the setting up of Giuliani and Pence.
Like the humour of Ricky Gervais, who along with Baron Cohen first came to national attention in Britain on Channel 4's 'The 11 O'Clock Show', sometimes the gags go way over the top and they are often too reliant on shock tactics.
A scene where Borat dresses up as an anti-Semitic caricature of a Jewish person and wanders into a synagogue where he meets the Holocaust survivor, the late Judith Dim Evans is a deeply uncomfortable watch.
The same is true about the sequences in the Hillsborough Republican Women's Club and at the debutante's call.
Whether you can stomach Baron Cohen's humour or not will vary from person to person.
While the film does memorably expose some of the more repellent views of some peopke on the American right, you cannot help feeling the targeting of them is all too easy.
It is shooting rubber ducks in a barrel at very close range.
You ought to feel sympathy for the people of Kazakhstan who over two films have been lampooned as backward, racist, misogynist and anti-Semitic state in scenes that were actually shot in Romania.
That depiction leaves Baron Cohen vulberable to accusations that by diminishing Kazakhstan, he is actually guilty of the stereotyping many of his right wing targets are often ridiculed for.
Baron Cohen's immersion and dedication to the role is impressive.
Although it is Bakalova, who is originally from Bulgaria, who actually steals the show.
Woliner also does a mostly decent job working within the confines of the mockumentary.
However some of the scenes between Baron Cohen's satirical set pieces feel baggy and sometimes hus gags run out of steam.
A running joke that Borat must wear disguises in the US because of the success of his previous film soon grows tiresome.
A nod to Bryan Singer's cult thriller 'The Usual Suspects' towards the end of the film also feels hackneyed.
Although there is a clever cameo featuring Tom Hanks at the end.
To Baron Cohen's credit, he has a well developed talent for creating memorable, cringe worthy scenes in TV and movies.
These mercilessly expose the absurdity of extremists and vanity of public figures.
With the Rudy Giuliani sequence alone, he has guaranteed that 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' will be one of the most talked about movies of 2020.
But will it and the film's depiction of Q Anon supporters actually dissuade voters from supporting Donald Trump and the GOP in a deeply entrenched election!
That is highly debatable.
('Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' was released on Amazon Prime on October 23, 2020)
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