Bruno

[Borris]

I was at an advance screening of Bruno last night and thought I'd share my thoughts on it.

[Show spoiler]Bruno is a story about the titular Austrian and his attempts to become world famous after he looses his local television show after a mishap on a fashion show runway. His journey takes him to America where he meets several people that help guide him to world fame. Along for the journey is his assistant's assistant, who just happens to be the only person left that belives in Bruno after he looses his Austrian show. Bruno tries several things to gain his world fame including starting a celebrity talk show featuring Paula Abul and Harrison Ford, becoming an extra on a TV show, adopting a world-issue for charity, making a sex tape, and even going straight.
At one point, there was going to be a scene that involved Latoya Jackson and Bruno looking through her iPhone and then reading out Michael's phone number to his assistant. This scene has been cut from the final print. The final runtime was just at 80 minutes.
While I found the original Borat to be frickin' hilarious, I thought Bruno felt a little bit forced with the situations seeming a little too staged. It's obvious that Sasha leaned on the studio (Universal) for a few of his gimmics including a TV talk show where he is a guest and introduces his bartered African child. The set looks very similar to part of the Jerry Springer set that is also owned by Universal. When Bruno gets a job as an extra on the show Medium (also NBC Universal) the humor starts to dry up. This is not to say that Bruno is devoid of humor; quite the contrary actually. But, it relies more on shock humor more often than dialog humor.
This shock humor starts shortly after the beginning of the film when Bruno introduces his little Filipino boyfriend and then performs various sex acts with him (covered up by black boxes). It returns later with Bruno performing oral on the spirit of Milli from Milli Vanilli at a psychic's office, and culminates in the end with a staged wrestling match that turns into something else.
Whereas Borat felt very candid, Bruno does not. It felt scripted right up to the end where Bruno sings a we-are-the-world-esque song with Bono, Sting, Elton John, and Snoop Dog. One of the best lines of the film is when Snoop Dog refers to Bruno as "the white Obama".

Overall 5/10
Worth a rental or matinee, no repeatability

Movie not reccomended for kids or people that hate either gays, straights, swingers, Jews, Africans, African-Americans, whites, Filipinos, Germans...or Hitler. They are all made fun of. Enjoy.

[GLaDOS]

Maybe we should merge all the Bruno threads together, not to get confused, per se, since there are like a bunch of Bruno threads already.

I'm still looking forward to Bruno though, despite being a Filipino myself, but I' am shocked about what you said about

[Show spoiler]him having random gay sex with his Filipino boyfriend.

[gamer4eva]

just saw it 2 day at d cinemas OMFG dere is ALOOOOOOOT of male nudity in this movie i was shocked yet ROFL its d funniest movie of d year(havent seen hangover yet) but this was by far the most i've laughed in d cinemas ....... WATCH IT

[Lucy Diamond]

This is Cohen's best character and nothing felt more forced than Borat, so I'm thinking this is going to be my brand.

As far as that Obama line...I'd take that as an insult.

[Lord_Stewie]

Hey Borris,

if you had to compare to say which is better, what would you pick of the two. Borat or Bruno.

and also what would rate Borat? the reason i am asking I saw the rate you gave to Bruno, so I wanted to compare your rate to Borat.

thanks in advance.

[Mike53421]

Originally laughed at the Borat character but found myself bored with the movie about half an hour in, as with the above poster, is Bruno better or worse than Borat? I see the Rotten Tomatoes reviews are a little more balanced than Borat which is oddly selling me on this one slowly.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Sasha Baron Cohen's talent completely vanished with Ali G.

Now, all he is doing is exploiting unsuspecting people with material that is both offensive to his victims AND his viewers. His "work" has become the antithesis of art (which is something that is meant to provoke the evolution of the mind and spirit). His "work" not only hinders the growth and potential of his "fans," but it is also encourages a relapse towards prejudical behaviour!

I was forced to watch Borat by someone that I respected. I lost a lot of respect for that person because of their opinions of the content in that "film" (for lack of a better term). So, I will not see Bruno.

[SillyMammo]

Bruno was the least favorite of Sasha Baron Cohen's characters. I loved the Borat shorts on Da Ali G Show. Very edgey stuff. I disliked the Borat movie, because it was too scripted. I'll definitely rent Bruno.

[FIDDYPOP]

Too bad Ali G did not get a descent movie. Maybe that is next for Baron Cohen. I would love to see some new credible Ali G interviews.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

My view is that Sasha Baron Cohen has gotten to the point where he provokes the responses he seeks for "entertainment" purposes by going far beyond any normal activity of the member of the communities he is "representing."

If he behaved properly as members of his target communities and managed to invoke responses, that would be acceptable. But, he simply goes to extents far beyond how ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING would act... and thus, it is encouraging such behaviour in other because now a high percentage of teenagers will think that it is acceptable to behave in the fashion in which he does in his "films."

EDIT: Where did the post go that I was responding to?!?!?!

[Borris]

Originally Posted by shadblz

Hey Borris,

if you had to compare to say which is better, what would you pick of the two. Borat or Bruno.

and also what would rate Borat? the reason i am asking I saw the rate you gave to Bruno, so I wanted to compare your rate to Borat.

thanks in advance.

I liked Borat better. I thought it was out-of-the-box in format for the time and felt more candid in the situations presented. While this strived to get candid reactions, it did so more often than not by staging all other variables to guarantee a certain reaction (kind of like those MTV scripted reality shows). Whereas Borat is a film that college film students and sociology students can extrapolate cultural lessons from, Bruno offers nothing similar.

Borat: 7/10
Bruno: 5/10

[Riff Magnum]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

My view is that Sasha Baron Cohen has gotten to the point where he provokes the responses he seeks for "entertainment" purposes by going far beyond any normal activity of the member of the communities he is "representing."

If he behaved properly as members of his target communities and managed to invoke responses, that would be acceptable. But, he simply goes to extents far beyond how ANY OTHER HUMAN BEING would act... and thus, it is encouraging such behaviour in other because now a high percentage of teenagers will think that it is acceptable to behave in the fashion in which he does in his "films."

EDIT: Where did the post go that I was responding to?!?!?!

I don't think we should judge him so severely based on the idea that a high percentage of teenagers will mimic his behavior. Teenagers aren't quite themselves yet and will settle down eventually, but i think even most of them will realize IT'S SATIRE, even if you don't. Of course he's going to extremes; that's what satire does. If these teenagers you're worried about so much end up being racist, homophobic nazi's, it's probably gonna have more to do with their parents or some redneck uncle than it is with Sasha Cohen.
So now when he plays an anti-semitic guy from some made up country, or a totally over the top homosexual, or a ballin' thug from the hood he has to "represent" that "community" authentically?
How's that work?

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by Borris

I liked Borat better. I thought it was out-of-the-box in format for the time and felt more candid in the situations presented. While this strived to get candid reactions, it did so more often than not by staging all other variables to guarantee a certain reaction (kind of like those MTV scripted reality shows). Whereas Borat is a film that college film students and sociology students can extrapolate cultural lessons from, Bruno offers nothing similar.

Borat: 7/10
Bruno: 5/10

About what I rate Borat. Thanks for getting back to me.

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by FIDDYPOP

Too bad Ali G did not get a descent movie. Maybe that is next for Baron Cohen. I would love to see some new credible Ali G interviews.

There is an Ali G movie. I think it came out in 2002.

[SillyMammo]

Originally Posted by shadblz

There is an Ali G movie. I think it came out in 2002.

I think the key word from Fiddypop's quote was "decent."