Bruno (2009)

AKA: bo yi cuk shing zi yiu tan gau zou sam dim buk lou gau dim mei gouk lou (Honk Kong)

Director: Larry Charles

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Borat was so 2006

Plot: Flamboyantly gay Austrian television reporter Bruno (Cohen) stirs up trouble with unsuspecting guests and large crowds through brutally frank interviews and painfully hilarious public displays of homosexuality. An incredible chameleon who completely disappears behind his flaming alter ego, the bold Baron Cohen serves up nonstop laughs in this comedy by successfully rubbing people the wrong way.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Eventually, sure.


I fucking loved BORAT (2006) to death. Brilliant. Hell, I even dug the shit out of ALI G INDAHOUSE (2002). That was pretty goddamned funny. Cohen's DA ALI G SHOW was hilarious and I dig all three of his characters from that 12 episode run. Great stuff. So, naturally I was pumped to see BRUNO.


It's unfair to the film to say this but if I hadn't seen BORAT first, BRUNO would have fared much better. That doesn't mean that it's not good but it borrows far too much from his previous film to watch it without constant reminders that this or that happened in BORAT but also that it was much funnier then than now - that's its biggest problem...that and several of the segments meant to look real are staged.


There are some screamingly funny scenes like the Paula Abdul interview with Latinos being used as furniture, Ron Paul being duped and the camping trip in Alabama with some colorful, bigoted natives. My favorite bit lasts all of 3 seconds and that's his "interview" with Harrison Ford. I was howling my ass off.


I've got the disc in my rental queue only to watch it with the commentary and other extras. It's certainly not up to the excellence that was BORAT but, if I were to trim it down to my favorite moments it'd be a gut-busting 20 minutes.

UPDATE: 5/2/12 - I ended up watching it with a friend who hadn't seen it and I'm pretty sure that was the last time. Except for a few laughs, it just doesn't hold up.