Movies Reviews

Bruno - Movie Review

By Anne Brodie Jul 10, 2009, 12:17 GMT

Where oh where to begin?

Brüno is dirty, crude, crass, wrong, degrading, upsetting, horrifying, bawdy, insensitive and against all things good and decent. There is a penis that does tricks and calls out ‘Brüno”.And it’s a riot. A fight broke out in the theatre where it screened in my town. People stormed out. People looked horror struck afterwards and others giggled all the way out. Sacha Baron Cohen has done it again, he’s called int question where to draw the line between entertainment and the worst kind of porn. A provocateur above all else, he has his dangerous schick down to a fine art. Brüno, the Austrian fashion TV reporter, is fired form his job. He’s also banned from all fashion events across Europe after crashing and devastating Fashion Week in Paris. He concocts an idea to flee to Hollywood and become überfamous, as famous an Austrian as Hitler. He takes sidetrips into the US hinterlands and takes instruction in de-gaying. There’s plenty of skin, plenty of sex and plenty of wild variations. He is intent on revealing what brutes people can be by setting up patsies for big old fashioned Brüno -esque falls.You just have to wonder how some fail to recognise him. Borat wasn’t so long ago and if he looks a little different as an Austrian gay fashion journo, that voice is unmistakable. And the M.O.’s unchanged - bag, ridicule and embarrass famous, infamous and unsuspecting regular folks.The indignant, morally compromised ‘victims’ aren’t really. Sure they’ve been manipulated into participating in something extreme that they could never have guessed would embarrass them. But they must have signed releases so the filmmakers could use their images in the film. It seems certain that some episodes were staged like the whip thrashing dominatrix whom Brüno escapes by jumping out a picture window. Take the redneck drunken cowboy reduced to tears by the spectacle of another personna, ‘Straight Dave”, making out with a man in an extreme fighting cage while the audience bellows with rage. Female audience members clap hands over their mouths in disbelief. He was apparently threatened but that’s not in the film.
What does it all mean? Such a firestorm of conflicting emotions and reactions to the Baron-Cohen hijinks. He brings out the worst in his subjects unmercifully but hits an unusually innocent note at one point, asking three people involved in sex if they’d like a sandwich. He actually seems embarrassed.A scene involving LaToya Jackson has been removed from the film in general release, out of respect for the Jackson family so soon after Michael Jackson’s death. Gays may take offence at his depiction of them, and it is crass and unfair, but to be expected as part of Baron-Cohen’s bag of tricks. Never has feeling so incredibly uncomfortable been so funny.Written by Sasha Baron Cohen, et al
Directed by Larry Charles
Opens: July 10
Runtime 83 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language
Country: USA
Language: English / German

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SheilaJul 13th, 2009 - 20:41:19

Horrible, unimaginative, cruel, stupid. Possibly the worst movie it has been my misfortune to see. I cannot fathom how anyone could consider it 'good' in any way. The sooner it's out of theaters and subsequently relegated to the '20 DVD's for $1.50' box at BlockBuster, the better.

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LeanneJul 18th, 2009 - 05:18:46

This film is filthy toilet humor and it's not funny. I strongly disagree with the woman who wrote this review saying the film is funny. It should not be allowed in movie theaters! Don't waste your money!

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martinJul 23rd, 2009 - 10:53:32

absolutely brilliant, shocking yes , my head was in my hands at some of the things sacha was doing but, brave and so funny .the character bruno is not quite so endearing as borat but, the prejudices exposed are the same , an explosive indictment of the so called modern world.

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windyJul 24th, 2009 - 19:58:17

Crap.The worse movie I ever saw. I walked out in the middle of it.Should have walked out sooner and asked for a refund. Garbage!

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