Brüno

Although Borat was "so 2006", some may prefer it to this restyled and redone Sacha Baron Cohen mockumentary style comedy.

Does it do it's job? Absolutely. Certain segments are absolutely hilarious, and will leave you laughing long enough to miss other jokes.

And that's about it.

While Borat offered plenty of innocence, heart, and improvised candid comedy, Brüno sets out to just try and make you laugh. Occaisionally it becomes evident that they try too hard to make the audience laugh, and in those places it loses its comedy. The planned script absolutely murders the laugh factor of this movie, and it only gets back on track during its moments of candid comedy, and improvised trickery at the expense of others. Some people that Brüno encounters are paid actors, and when we realize that it loses its fun.

Sacha Baron Cohen does a fantastic job with this character, and the moments when the movie seemed to lose its track were not because of him. I have lately become very impressed with Sacha Baron Cohen's habit of completely melting into his characters and leaving little to nothing left to see. He never slipped into Borat or Pirelli, and I can understand that with such outrageous characters it could have been very easy to fall into both.

Now for the material. Don't kid yourself if you walked out in distaste. You knew what was coming. Borats use of racism, homosexuality, toilet humor, sexual humor, nudity, sexism and outrageous disrespect for people of all religionsand beliefs paved the way for what I can only describe as some of the most visual shit I have seen on a three story screen. And it was hilarious. The final scene (the one with the cage match) left me wondering when the last time I laughed that hard in a movie theatre was. (It was the Penis Drawing scene from Superbad. It's been that long)

I am currently downloading the soundtrack to Brüno as we speak, because although it has little to no artistic value, I loved the rythm and beat that persisted throughout the movie. The last track in particular (Starring Bono, Elton John, Snoop Dogg and guitar accompiniment by Slash) had me in belly laugh by the end.

The only problem with the ending was when it ended. I understand there is only so much that you can do with this kind of comedy, but after 84 minutes and ten dollars, I was expecting more when the credits began to roll.

At the end of the night, my date and I left remarking how hilarious Brüno was, and I silently decided that I would probably not buy the DVD.

B-

If you liked Borat:Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Jackass, and Step Brothers you will like this movie.