Die Leningrad Cowboys treffen Moses

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 MEET MOSES (1994) is a sequel to LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO America of four years previously, where Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki introduced one of his most absurd creations: an extravagantly quiffed "Russian" rock band from the wilds of Siberia, supposedly the worst band in the world, played by Finnish actors who speak only Finnish and then broken English to each other.

That first film was a sort of road movie, where the Leningrad Cowboys played a series of ramshackle bars across the American South while headed towards Mexico to perform at a wedding. Unbeknownst to them, the village idiot Igor (Kari Väänänen), who aspires to be one of them, has arrived in the United States too in pursuit, and their manager Vladimir (played by the late, great Matti Pellonpää) exploited them all the way by taking their earnings for his own luxurious desires. LENINGRAD COWBOYS MEET MOSES follows closely on the action of the first film, as Vladimir reappears after an unexplained absence, having become an extravagantly bearded religious fanatic and calling himself Moses. Their former manager wants to lead the band, who have become stranded in Mexico, back to their home in Siberia. This sequel has the same general format as its predecessor, though this time the road trip is from France back through Europe to the Russian border. Vladimir has stolen something important, and French actor André Wilms plays an American CIA agent pursuing him on the road back home (his thick French accent again clashing with his character's supposed origin).

LENINGRAD COWBOYS MEET MOSES is among Kaurismäki's worst films, and one of those sequels that should have never been made. Already with the first film one was just as likely to sigh at the lameness of it all as chuckle at the gags. The sequel, however, is a much more somber film than its predecessor, which mean there are even less gags, and virtually every scene feels like milking a formula. While it might be worth a try if you are a committed fan of Kaurismäki's body of work, I would be very reluctant to recommend this (or even the vastly superior LENINGRAD COWBOYS GO America) to a general audience.

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.

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.

The Cowboys are lured from Mexico to Coney Island by their former manager who disappeared at the end of Leningrad Cowboys Go America. He believes he is the reincarnation of Moses, sent to lead them back to the promised land - Siberia.

The first film is a cult classic, as it should be. The second one is not nearly as good. The quirkiness seems to be scaled back, and the songs are not as good overall 9though "Rivers of Babylon" is a nice touch). Fans of the first ought to see the second, but I hardly think anyone would argue this is the better film.

The religious aspects are interesting, though never fully developed. I suppose some more parallels to Moses could have been included. The line "Jesus saves, Moses invests" is a good catch phrase, but what does it all mean?