Brüno (2009)

Brüno is a gay Austrian fashion reporter impersonated by the man that notoriously starred as Borat in... Borat.

(For those that have seen Borat: you probably know what to expect. If you did not like Borat for the painfully explicit content, stay away from Brüno. If you almost died of laughter during a certain hotel scene in Borat, go see Brüno immediately and prepare for almost certain death.)

Obviously, having made Borat, the producers of Brüno had a hard time to repeat the surprise effect. It should therefore not come as a surprise that the movie contains substantially less confrontations between the main character and innocent (famous) bystanders. Still, confrontations with a number of people, among which a few famous ones, seem sincere, and work on multiple levels, as in Borat. Others are clearly scripted, but not less funny for that (watch the ending credits for an example).

In general, compared to Borat, Brüno focuses more on a) effectively shocking it's viewers with the (sexual) misconduct of the main character and b) stunts of this main character in front of a large audience. Essentially, this time the shock effect is moved from the 'random' people that appear in the movie, to the audience looking at the movie.

For many, it will definitely be more shocking than Borat, given the shamelessly explicit content that exploits every possibility for jokes concerning men making out. For others, the never-ending provoked racism of Borat will have a longer-lasting impact.

All I know is that I laughed a lot during this movie. It will once again lead to lots of controversy and imitation at thousands of workplaces around the globe. Maybe it is therefore best if you know what it is about.

But be warned. If you are easily offended, you will be offended. Majorly.

Fmovies: I was lucky enough to win tickets to the premiere and spent the entire movie alternating between HUGE belly laughs and covering my eyes in disbelief. If you didn't like Borat, you are unlikely to enjoy this one either as there is a lot of nudity (including one memorable shot of a talking.... body part), profanity and taking the mickey out of: a) rednecks b) fashionistas c) F-list celebrities (and a few A-listers too; remember, children are not an accessory. Unless they're cute. Or match your outfit.) d) terrorists (yes, really, don't know how Sasha got out of that one alive)

I loved the movie and although some of the scenes worked better than others, for sheer inventiveness, audacity and brilliant ad-lib comedy, Baron Cohen remains at the top of his game.

Satire has been defined as stretching a position to its logical conclusion in order to expose its absurdity, for example, Jonathan Swift suggesting that the starving Irish should show initiative by fattening up their children and selling them to well-to-do families as food. The brilliant satirist Sacha Baron Cohen in Larry Charles' Bruno takes the story of a Gay Austrian fashionista seeking to become a celebrity in the U.S. and stretches it to its logical conclusion and then extends it - way beyond. It is often hard to tell if the film is an exposé of the debasement of our culture or just another of example of it.

In the film, a sequel to the 2006 mega-hit Borat, Bruno comes to Los Angles to become host of his own A-List Celebrity Max Out after being fired from his job as a TV host of the Austrian show Funkyzeit and being "schwartz-listed". Needless to say, it maxes out after the first viewing thanks to an abortive interview with Paula Abdul and Harrison Ford. Not letting a temporary setback stand in his way, Bruno hires an assistant named Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), and travels far and wide in an elusive search for the American Dream known as fame and fortune. In his stunts and misadventures (mostly in the South and Southwest), he exposes the raw prejudices that exist against gays and the sickening cult of celebrity that grips us as a nation.

The funniest scenes are at a swinger's party, on a Dallas talk show, at a gay "deprogramming" session, during a visit to a psychic where Bruno mimes oral sex, and the spectacle of a drunken crowd stirred up by "scared straight" Bruno bashing gays in a fight-club arena. Seeking to become recognized world wide, Bruno travels to the Middle East to try and bring the Arabs and the Israeli's together but confuses Hamas with Hummus and the only thing they can agree on is that it is good with pita bread. In another sequence, he goes to Africa to swap his iPod for a little black child named OJ which he uses to crash American talk shows. Baron Cohen, who wrote the script with Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer and Jeff Schaffer saves his heavy artillery for narrow mindedness of every stripe.

The film ridicules all it comes in contact with, sparing nothing and nobody - from exhibitionist gays to up-tight straights, to families who will starve their children for a modeling gig. Some sequences hit their targets, others do not. If you are looking for good taste, you will not find it here. While satire in film is not supposed to be a comfortable experience and is supposed to make you squirm and even at times hide your eyes, it is not supposed to make you want to walk out.

Bruno travels a thin line between what's merely outlandish and what is revolting and its in your face shamelessness comes awfully close to defeating its own purpose. The fact that the Cambridge-educated Cohen is ultimately able to pull it off, however, and make it entertaining is a tribute to his courage and originality. While Bruno can be shocking and very disturbing, it is also a mirror for us to look at ourselves. Like the est training of the 1970s that was often confrontational, we may not like what we see but we can use it to grow from the experience.

Brüno fmovies. I expected there to be a high level of gay and crude sexual jokes in this latest Sacha Baron Cohen adventure. Then the movie took it 2 steps further than anything I had prepared myself for.

The result; a lot of uneasy moments, a lot of uncontrollable laughing, and some putting my hands over my face in disbelief or disgust. The humour in the film is clearly that of in-your-face slapstick, however given the extremes the film goes to, it's all relatively entertaining. Like Borat, all of the genuine laughs are in everyday peoples reactions, rather than the poorly structured story or scripted scenes.

That said, it was a challenge of how much one could handle, and I wouldn't have minded if they had left out a particular full frontal shot of the male anatomy spinning around (an image that will stay with me for some time and probably haunt my dreams). It's not a movie I could really get 'comfortable' with watching, seeing all hell unravel in a variety of situations one after another with very little in the way of breaks, but time did go by relatively quickly, which helps given the intensity of the scenes.

It's not a film for the faint of heart, and definitely has more potential to offend than Borat ever did, though for the more open minded among us who aren't so easily offended, you may find some enjoyment in this film. Humanities finest moments certainly aren't on display here. Go see it with a few mates or drinking buddies and have fun, though you may exit the cinema a little more disturbed than when you went in.

The comparison between 'Brüno' and 'Borat' seems inevitable and even though 'Borat' tackles some relevant issues and constantly maintains its sense of very crude, offensive, outlandish and macabre humour 'Brüno' does the same but it's more toned down when compared to 'Borat'. Yet, even though the vulgarity is less in frequency when compared to 'Borat' at its crudest, 'Brüno' tops the aforementioned (hint: a swinging penis that talks). Needless to say, the comedic sequences are over the top (which is to be expected in a movie lead by Sacha Baron Cohen) but I found most of it hilarious, even overall funnier than 'Borat'. At the same time the film touches on some relevant issues for example when Brüno visits the gay converters or when he has parents audition for him to take a photograph with his kid. The movie makes fun of them but it also makes viewers aware of the existence of such people. The execution is well done. Even the score is ticklish at times. Overall, it's a hilarious little film but definitely not everyone's cup of coffee.

I just saw it and I was a bit let down. I am gay, I love Cohen, and was ready to laugh. But the problem was he didn't expose any under-the-surface bigotry like he did in Borat. He overdid his "gayness" to such a violent extreme that he forced reactions out of people, some of whom are probably plenty openminded. You ended feeling sorry for these people.

Especially Ron Paul, who out of all the politicians Cohen could have chosen, deserved it the least. He's no champion of gay rights, but he is certainly not an enemy either and he reacted like any normal person would in that nightmarish situation. There were also some genuine bigots in the film, but Cohen goes to such an extreme to provoke them, by the time it gets to that point, who cares?

There were funny moments, of course, Cohen is a funny man, but this movie lacks the bite Borat had. This was just an exercise in bad taste (which is fine, if that's what you're looking for).