Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Blistering performances.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This is harder to enjoy than GO America for sure. A more somber and low-key affair, with fewer jokes and even the music is more downtempo (including an amusing cheesy lounge version of "Rivers of Babylon"). But I don't think it deserves the low reputation it has... currently a 5.0 rating on IMDb, and one commenter on a forum pegs it as "comfortably Kaurismaki's worst." Comfortably AMONG his worst, but even at his worst he's usually fun. I certainly wouldn't consider it any worse than TAKE CARE OF YOUR SCARF TATIANA or his ho-hum adaptation of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. There's a number of funny bits as he takes potshots at Christianity, phony evangelists, capitalism, and communism (the movie came out not long after the fall of the Soviet Union). Apparently half the group had left by this point, which is explained away as death by tequila, and another batch of faces is brought in. Normally this might be a big deal, but few of the band members were showcased in the first film. And it allows for the great line "Where is the Mexican department of the orchestra?" Okay, so it's not as memorable or endearing as its predecessor, but you've gotta have some love for a movie where someone steals the nose from the Statue of Liberty to take back to Russia.

Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Aki Kaurismäki's rock satire from 1989, didn't need a sequel. Yet one was made five years later, and while worth watching, it's a definite step back compared to its predecessor.Following their success in Mexico, the Cowboys'life ain't that good: half of them are dead or missing, and the rest spend their days getting drunk under the blazing sun. And that's when a "savior" shows up: it's none other than Vladimir (Matti Pellonpää), the band's former manager, who mysteriously disappeared at the end of the previous flick (remember? "And no one ever saw him again. Sh*t happens"). He tells them he has become Moses and that his mission is to take them back to their home-country, Russia. What he doesn't tell them is that he has also stolen the Statue of Liberty's nose, and that a CIA agent (André Wilms) is after him. In other words, it's gonna be one hell of a trip.Shame this trip back home isn't as interesting or funny as the Cowboys'original journey to the US. This time, Kaurismäki doesn't really know what to do with his characters, as most of them are gone and what he has left isn't much around which to construct a coherent screenplay. Almost everyone's behavior has no explanation, including Vladimir/Moses', who's a far less charismatic protagonist than he was back in 1989. Still, the biblical references are amusing, as are the scenes where the Cowboys get to sing, with the usual results.So, to sum up, this film could have been much better, but it's worth your time if you haven't already seen it.

I had waited for YEARS to see the sequel to Leningrad Cowboys Go America and I think it was worth the wait. When I watch the first film I tend to watch it on my own, mainly because the humour is so subtle, so slight, so strangely European that it often doesn't translate to a film you could have your pals come over and watch over beer and pizza. I find both films absolutely hilarious and compelling, but it's a style of humour where you don't really laugh out loud, it's like you are laughing inside your head. Go America chronicles their road trip to America and is in many ways more straight forward. They learn to play rock and roll music in order to get money (all of which their manager takes) and they end up in Mexico. The Meet Moses is much more bizarre.Their manager returns claiming to be Moses and insisting they have to go back to Europe, but not before he has stolen the nose of the Statue Of Liberty. All manner of people are trying to get the nose back. Their journey leads them through many strange situations, many of which are never explained and that's part of the beauty of this film makers style. You are often left confused, or frustrated and that's just fine. I was delighted that one time member of UK punk band The Members, Nicky Tesco, reprises his role as American Cousin, as his appearance in the first one was a huge unexpected bonus for me. Both these movies are well worth the investigation if you can find them, and if you ever get to see The Leneigrad Cowboys play live - you should absolutely do it- they are astounding!

If you like Kaurismaki's dry humor, you might go for this sequel. It does have its funny bits . . . but a lot of them might go right over your head. I don't think many people would recognize the voice on the radio as the Leningrad Cowboys (L.C. hereafter) check into the hotel with the portrait of George Washington on the wall (Billy Graham, preaching on Isaiah 51:11) and I'm sure there are other things that I missed. It's basically the funny bits that make the film, I guess - the disjointed, non sequitur nature of the film being part of the joke.You don't really have to understand *why* there are two sets of L.C. (Mexican & Finnish), or the trip from Mexico to Coney Island, or their old manager Vladimir appearing there (claiming to be some reincarnation of Moses). You just have to go with the flow of the zaniness - which includes Moses stealing the nose of the Statue of Liberty (we see the NY Times headline "Statue Nose Stolen" as it's read by Andre Wilms - the bad guy Shemeikka in the 1999 "Juha" by Kaurismaki) who follows the group and claims to be the prophet Jeremiah (or Elijah or Isaiah - he seems to change his identity along the way, claiming to be a CIA agent at one point).Other amusing bits include the flight to Europe on a prop plane with Moses on the wing holding the nose of the Statue of Liberty, the L.C. playing one song at a Bingo place in France - getting paid in blank Bingo cards and one of them immediately getting "bingo".There are a number of biblical allusions: Moses walking on water across a pool; Moses and Jeremiah trading quotes, some real ("never cook a kid in his mother's milk", others faux ("do not eat any disgusting thing"); and Moses getting water from a rock (by drilling it with a jackhammer) are just a few. I'll let you guess how he comes upon the burning bush, where the golden calf comes in, and how they run into Kirsi Tykkylainen singing "By the Rivers of Babylon" - lyrics from Psalm 137. (She also sings "Those Were the Days" in the 1992 short of the same day and in the 1993 "Total Balalaika Show").Going over it in my mind, I'm finding it funnier than when I first saw it. Maybe I was a little tired then; perhaps conflating the events I found amusing lets me forget the bits that dragged for me.