User reviews

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).

In some ways, this movie is Sacha Baron Cohen's best work. His ability to completely and utterly humiliate some of society's worst people is absolutely on point at times, not least with the abhorrent talent show parents. On the other hand, it also contains some of his weakest and most off-putting material and many scenes are tedious and ridiculous. Overall, I think there is enough genius in here to consider it a success, but it certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Brüno is a good movie with a very good set up for very cringe worthy hidden camera comedy and a very risky performance from Sacha Baron Cohen ,not his best movie,but it's definitely his most offensive.It will definitely offend many people and if you are easily offended definitely do not watch this movie.He visits some of the dark parts of Los Angeles that I didn't even know existed,particularly the straight camps and wrestling arena,which made the cringe in this movie so brilliant,I felt made about how much I was laughing at his jokes,because that's just the kind of movie it is,you realize its offensive,but you can stop yourself from laughing.Its certainly no Borat,but fans of Sacha Baron Cohens comedy will definitely enjoy Brüno.

Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen) a European fashion model,heads to Los Angeles to become a big celebrity by following his own steps in becoming famous.

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.

So I was able to attend an early screening tonight here in Houston, and it seems Bruno is touching some buttons here in America, I understand. Yes Bruno is a flaming stereotype of homosexuals but didn't Borat do the same thing? Cohen ran throughout America depicting Americans in uncomfortably stereotypical situations.

If you loved Borat you will undoubtedly enjoy Bruno. It follows the same genuine formula found in Cohen's previous film, be as outrageous as possible with some slight classiness/taste and the austrian is exceptionally well at it.

I really don't want to spoil anything for yall since the commercials/trailers have shown a lot but Bruno offers everything a great comedy can offer to you which in total means a great night at the movies.

The only cons I can think of are some jokes fall flat but the great ones easily overshadow the bad ones.

If you're easily offended by blatant nudity and controversial topics steer clear of Bruno but if you're open minded and ready to have an amazing night at the movies, I would buy your ticket for opening night ASAP.

9/10

I remember pretending to go to sleep some nights and then waiting for my parents to go to bed. After the coast was clear I would sneak downstairs and watch HBO. One of my favorite shows, besides 'Real Sex', was 'Da Ali G Show'. I still try and catch it whenever its on now and it still is classic and timeless.

I had no idea how they were going to pull it off but I saw 'Borat' in its opening weekend and I, along with the rest of the audience, laughed from start to finish. Borat was pretty close to perfect and definitely engaging and re-watchable. It was fresh and it was nice to see a movie that did not have a tired, recycled plot.

It is hard to watch 'Bruno' without making comparisons to Bruno's first carnation on 'Da Ali G Show'. I was expecting something along the lines of Borat. I went into this film with the same hopes and expectations of 'Borat' and honestly the magic just was not there.

The beauty of 'Borat' was in the reactions of the people interviewed. People were intolerant, racist and sexist. 'Borat' was a complete study of American ignorance and a great sociological experiment.

There was ample opportunity for Cohen to capture this feeling again. Homophobia is a big issue today and I was really hoping to see some kind of exploration into the subject.

It was there but not in the way I expected. It felt, to me at least, that Bruno was there to simply make everyone around him uncomfortable. This was funny the first time but it got a little stale. It would have been nice to see more in terms of intolerance.

I also expected more in terms of parodying the shallowness and unpractical nature of the fashion industry. There were plenty of opportunities to take stabs at fashion but this was only done in the beginning.

Without giving anything away there is a lot of shock and a great scene with Harrison Ford- but other than that it just seemed kind of under enthusiastic. I expected a lot more.

How does Borat have a 7.3 and this only a 5.8? Both movies follow basically the same formula: A crazy, super exaggerated walking stereotype played by Sacha Baron Cohen goes to America, getting involved in wacky antics and meeting some celebrities along the way, often in front of real unsuspecting crowds. Do people hate this movie because its the same formula again? I guess you could argue Borat is a little funnier than Bruno, but even still, its hard to get a laugh out of me and I involuntarily burst out laughing at least 15 or 20 times. Is it because of offensive, overly exaggerated gay stereotypes? I know this movie goes a bit far at points, but come on people, have a sense of humor! Pointing out Americans' ignorance of foreigners with funny accents is OK but doing the same thing with gays is too much? Sure. I often find myself rating movies lower than the average score, but this is a great movie, and I'd easily give it a 7 or 8. I honestly have no idea where the hate for this movie is coming from. Granted, its a HARD R and some of its more extreme content might be a little off putting to some, but come on people, this movie is hilarious!

Saw the film last night in Munich/Germany. Although I found the movie quite funny (especially the first part) and the audience even applauded at the end, I am damn sure, that a lot of the scenes where staged and performed by actors, which somehow ruins the film. Unlike Borat, where Cohen pretended to be a reporter, which made cameras around him an obvious thing, Brüno is shot in a different way, with a lot of cuts, very clear pictures, from several ankles and most of all with no real reason, why the scenes should be taped by a camera team. This was most obvious in the swinger club scene. Consequently I am certain that a lot of scenes are played by actors. That dampens the fun tremendously; at least for me.

As a child of the age of Aquarius, I found myself liking this movie. I thought it was completely hilarious in an unusual way. When Brüno puts himself in various situations (and some dangerous situations), and finds himself speechless; it almost makes you think that Sascha Baron Cohen couldn't possibly come up with any semblance of a clever retort. But exactly at those times is when he wows you with his virtuoso-like skill of improvisation. If I wasn't when I saw Borat, I am now completely convinced that Cohen is a genius. I highly recommend watching the DVD for its alternate, deleted, and extended scenes; and a highly pertinent interview with Brüno's unknowing agent after the fact. I highly recommend this movie, if for his skill at making a story into the various peoples he meets.

Sasha Baron Cohen stars as his alter-ego Bruno the Austrian fashionista from Funkyzeit.

This film tracks the misadventures of Bruno through a series of tragic comedic adventures and outrageous stunts.

It hardly compares to the crass and over-hyped Borat which sold on its shock value alone.

One feels that perhaps Ali G, Borat and Bruno have past their sell-by date, but this remains a film that will provide some R rated entertainment for a decidedly niche market.

For fans of the comedic genius of Cohen, this character is certainly camp, flambuoyant and zany, but the humor is wearing thin and the acting is sub-standard.

Worth watching, if only to complete the trifecta.

I seriously doubt that most people on this site need an introduction to this film, but I'll throw one in anyway. The notorious comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, whose 2006 mockumentary Borat caused a wave of controversy due to the bulk of its humour consisting of the titular character, a weird hybrid of every politically incorrect stereotype about foreigners, being set loose on unsuspecting Americans and enacting one big practical joke on everyone he meets.

Brüno follows virtually the same formula, except this time Cohen plays one entirely different character - a gay Austrian fashion reporter who's obsessed with the superficial culture of fashion, celebrities and sex. The plot (at least what there is) revolves around Brüno, once a famous Austrian fashion reporter, getting a bad reputation in the industry after ruining one particular fashion show. He sets off for America, hoping to achieve nothing more than to become famous. However, as you can expect, all his attempts to do so are multiple and disastrous.

Okay, so onto the film itself - er, okay. Brüno very nearly got an NC-17 in America (and up until a few days before its Australian release, had an R18 which was later worked down to MA15 , thus making it a little more "family-friendly") and even in what I suspect is an edited version, it still pushes the boundaries of good taste quite far. There were countless groans emanating from the audience as a result of sequences I probably can't describe in this review, but needless to say that if gross-out humour isn't your thing, you'd do best to steer away. Of course, that's pretty obvious, but what about the laugh factor for the people who can take it? Of course, this is just opinion, but Brüno is just not that funny. It's got a handful of good laughs spread across its brief running time, but they are spread rather thin and there are quite a few sequences that are both prolonged and largely (if not totally) unfunny. Whether he's doing some ridiculous pratfalls or maybe just some random off-the-cuff remark, there's plenty here that just seems like he's trying too hard to out-do Borat. That or he's not trying hard enough. I have no idea. Even the parts that I genuinely laughed at were parts that I knew were more or less on the same level as the ones I didn't laugh at, and I'm sure that other people will probably laugh at the parts I didn't like and vice versa. It makes the whole comedy aspect seem very uneven - given that most comedies aim to be consistently amusing all the way through, the sporadic nature of Brüno's humour is a strike against it.

While I admit that it's actually not a bad film, it's not exactly great either. While Borat, for all its faults, was at least a reasonably fresh character-based take on the whole "candid camera" brand of comedy, Brüno falls fairly short by more or less repeating the exact same formula that Borat had, with the only real changes aimed at trying to push the envelope of good taste, and while it's still a fairly in-your-face experience, it's still not that great. Enjoy it for what it is, but don't try and expect a comedy blockbuster.

Granted, the DVD I rented began to skip about halfway through the film and I didn't see the whole movie, I believe that the only reason that this movie doesn't get the same reviews as Borat is because the American audience is too uptight. Yes, the movie is gross and at times cringe-inducing. Some of the more extreme scenes could have been hampered down, but I believe at the expense of the humor. Posters say they have never met anyone like Bruno, however have they ever met anyone like Borat. Neither exist in the real world and that is why the movie works. Cohen is a brilliant improviser and always two steps ahead of his targets. Some of the pranks don't deliver, but that's okay. I admire his audacity. For all the people who say it was too gross, imagine if the film was filled with explicit heterosexual sex, I'm sure the reaction would be much different. The aversion to this movie is primarily because there is a deep seated disgust to homosexual activity within the American psyche and even the most tolerant liberal is likely to be disgusted at some point. That's okay, that is why the movie works, it asks us what it is and why we are appalled.

Where Borat was gormless and ignorantly charming, Bruno is calculated and ruthlessly seeking publicity. This is as I see it the key difference and the primary drawback of the film, at least when compared with Borat.

This leads to a situation where Bruno attacks the superficial and those lacking intelligence, in other words the easy targets.

Look at these attacks: - Models are stupid and vacuous. - People in the film industry are judgmental. - Californian women are superficial and dumb. - People from the Southern states of the US are homophobic and largely uneducated.

This is the equivalent of saying that George Bush is stupid, politicians are corrupt and (up until recently) you wouldn't want Michael Jackson babysitting your kids. (For some reason he is now a saint again in death.)

The best laughs in Bruno happen where he pushes himself into situations far beyond what the ordinary citizen would deem out there. There is a seance that really must be seen once - then hopefully forgotten - a sight gag on Bruno's pilot that is at once gross and ludicrously hilarious, a failed bondage session and a finale that I think petered out simply because (being heterosexual) Baron Cohen couldn't bring himself to go further. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand boundaries, but if you really want to push the boundaries the next illogical step is to go the whole hog (so to speak).

To paraphrase Tropic Thunder: Bruno goes half gay, instead of full gay, except this is exactly where the audience can tell that they are watching a button pushing film, instead of a no holds barred film.

I have no idea why I just wrote a paragraph suggesting that a film should be more gay, but there you go.

If you got this far you know you are going to watch it anyway, and I would never say not to, but this is an exercise in creating controversy, and not the classic mock doc that some might lead you to believe.

Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Again mercifully only 80 minutes, but this time in between the bits you'll talk about at work are prolonged segments of boredom totaling around 70 minutes. I looked at my watch way too much for it to be healthy.

Verdict - Ultimately I found my experiences watching Borat and Bruno almost back to back, I have decided that the films are much like the principal characters.

Borat is dumb yet likable. Bruno is dumb, vacuous and simply tries to hard in the end. Also, Sacha Baron Cohen is a victim of himself, after Borat, it's been done.

Clear advantage – Borat.

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Wow, I was really looking forward to this movie but, much to my dismay, it simply wasn't funny. It's a short movie - less than 90 minutes - and it seemed to go more for shock value than substance. I guess that it was assumed that shock value = funny = successful movie, but they were wrong. I would like to think that looking at a penis on screen would not send people rolling on the floor laughing in 2009. Too much of the movie seemed staged and rehearsed. Where as the surprise element was successful in the prior movie, here it was carefully choreographed and unbelievable. It reminded me of an old Simpsons episode, where the family is watching a gay parade and the participants are chanting, "We're here, we're queer, get used to it." A jaded Lisa Simpson says, "You say the same thing every year; we ARE used to it."