Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Cohen seems to understand that the film's shock value is automatically lower because of how deadened audiences have grown to political satire, so he relies more heavily on sitcom jokes to compensate and largely succeeds.

It's the opposite of what a Borat film should feel like: business as usual.

The risks that Baron Cohen took here - both artistic and personal - are admirable. And the pay-off is worth a lifetime of being subjected to the words "very nice!"

Bakalova is terrific in her first film made outside Bulgaria...[she] adds some much-needed emotional depth to what is otherwise a movie that isn't as funny or as revealing as it thinks it is.

Underneath it all it's got an empathy and an urgency the first Borat seemed to lack, thanks to its focus and the family at its center. That's very nice.

It has a particular political punch...Not as funny as it should have been, but there are some very good moments in it.

A finely calibrated blend of lowbrow vulgarity and sharp social satire, 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' is a document — or mockument — of and for the moment.

Unlike its predecessor, this “Borat” leans less on shock value and succeeds in storytelling, solid gags and a more arresting character arc for Borat and his charge in their “Paper Moon”-like tour of the country.

Mostly tedious or borderline unwatchable for much of its running time in ways that are eminently predictable—but when, 70 minutes in, Baron Cohen finally gets around to making some news, he does not miss.

This time around everything feels far more manufactured...