The tagline to BRUNO’s poster says Borat was so 2006 but now I kinda wish it was 2006 again because BRUNO doesn’t come close to how hilarious Borat was. Sacha Baron Cohen’s second attempt to do the same style of humor all over again fall short because… the audiences aren’t stupid, we can tell that some of the people the gay Austrian reporter tries to piss off this time around were in on it. BRUNO still has moments that crack you up but for it lacks spontaneity
Gay Austrian fashion reporter Brüno is fired from his show after disrupting a catwalk show during Milan Fashion week. Accompanied by his assistant’s assistant Lutz, he travels to the United States to become a superstar.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s flamboyant alter ego relies mostly on shocking us with his outrageous outfit and revealing fashion style but it can only go so far to make us laugh. But it never ceases to amaze me how Cohen, who’s a Jew himself, manages to anger his own people in their own country. BRUNO does make fun of today’s pop culture with his desire to become famous, so he makes his own interview/reality show, supposedly adopts baby from Africa, which he considers a country and the people living there are African Americans, but the movie for some reason ends up in the same line of those that are only funny in the trailers. Even Cohen’s return to the South to make the close-minded ignorant folks uncomfortable comes off as trying too hard, it gets old.
Hands down, to me, the best part of the movie is getting former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul to yell queer! There’s something about punking a politician that’s just brilliant but… even the punch line where we finally understand BRUNO just wants to do a sex tape with who he thinks is RuPaul doesn’t quite hit the target with today’s generation who may not necessarily recognize RuPaul.
The story sounds too similar to Borat, BRUNO also has an assistant, he also has a somewhat naked moment with his assistant, he breaks up with his assistant and he befriends his assistant again, literally, with complete tongue action.
If you don’t understand some of the gay jargons, gay jokes, and if you’re expecting Borat funny, you will be disappointed, plain and simple. Everybody can laugh at the sight of 1 or 2 or 3 dildos in a self-defense class but not everybody will understand half the words that BRUNO says. If some of the situations weren’t so staged, one can only imagine how.. unleashed.. the movie would be.
The ending is a major let down. I have nothing against musical scene and celebs cameos but let’s just say that this is the same reason why the ending to 40 Year Old Virgin turned me off. Ending it with a musical number seems like a way too easy getaway especially for a comedy, plus the lyrics don’t make sense.
I don’t think this movie in any way embarrasses gay community. If any, it actually tries to portray that no matter how hard BRUNO wants to be straight, he’s back to being gay again. Wanting to be famous doesn’t mean you have to compromise who you are.
* Place the cursor on the image below to check my grade for this film
I gave it 2 stars out of 5 over at Movieweb. Wasn't even remotely close to Borat. Check out my latest reviews when you get a chance.
I'm surprised you gave it such a high rating. I think 3 stars is too good for this film. I like Cohen and the characters he has created, but this movie was just not funny. Felt very fabricated.
I agree.. so much of it was staged..
Jamie Kennedy's Xperiment was funnier than BRUNO
I think we've gotten too familiar with Saca Baron Cohen's comedy
I'm bordering between a 1 or 2 out of 5 star rating. I respect many aspects of this film and what it was going for, but ultimately it just isn't a successful follow up to Borat. With Bruno you get the sense that Baron Cohen was just trying way too hard to elicit a reaction. Because of this, there's no weight to the public's response. Borat was hilarious because he could get the most insane reactions without doing much at all. Anyone would react negatively if forced to look at someone dance with their penis, whether they're homosexual or not. While those scenes weren't offensive to me (I'm gay myself) they just weren't clever. “Here! I dance naked! Funny, right?” is seemingly what they wanted out of those scenes. For some that humor works, but for me there needs to be a strong undercurrent of intelligence to balance it out. Apatow's perfect in this regard.
There were, however, moments of brilliance. Bruno interviewing a model about the hardships of walking the catwalk was fantastic. Talking to the fame-mongering parents about whoring out their children was delightful. My favorite would probably have to be when Bruno was speaking with those who Charity PR Consultants. They could hardly use the English language! But they were all few and far between. I wanted more out of the ex-gay ministers and the theme of switching to heterosexuality, but the potential is never fully realized. The cage fight love-making was a great way to climax the film, but at the end it just seemed too easy.
Bruno has identity issues. The film would have been the perfect platform to explore the obsession with fame, all of its superficiality, and homophobia. But it seems to favor childish humor over biting social satire. Had it been done with the same unpretentious flair as Borat, we could have received something special. With Bruno it just seemed as if Baron Cohen was just trying to see how much he could get away with instead of delivering something real.
[...] bad enough that BRUNO wasn’t as funny as Borat (check out my review), now the audiences in the U.K. area would get 2 versions of it. According to Hollywood Reporter, [...]