Brüno (2009)

I fully expected to see this film get an average below 4 on imdb. To my surprise it is sitting at 6.4/10 right now. So a little history first, Sacha Baron Cohen had a tv series in 2000 on HBO called "Da Ali G Show". On the Ali G show he used 3 persona's: Bruno, Borat, and Ali G. Ali G is the gangster, Borat is the confused foreigner, and Bruno is the homosexual. He then made a movie called Ali G Indahouse in 2002. So 4 years after the Ali G movie he made Borat which found some unexpectedly high ratings.

So Cohen goes on to make his 3rd film about his 3rd persona: Bruno. Now those that had never heard of Cohen thought this was basically Bruno II. Wow were they in for a surprise... This film tanked at the box office. Why? Because this never should have been considered a potentially good film. Bruno is his worst alter ego, Cohen banked on his Borat success and got the last laugh, even the title on the poster says "Borat was so 2006."

So I consider myself a Cohen educated person going into this film. I know Bruno is a persona of a foreign homosexual, some skits funny, some offensive, I get it. My problem with this film is that I felt lied to. I didn't think Borat was scripted, I honestly couldn't tell if the stunts he was pulling were on everyday people or on actors. In this film it was pretty clear some of his stunts were pulled on hired actors. The ones that were pulled on famous people and everyday people just weren't funny. I honestly think I would have reacted the same way as almost all of them, so what is so funny? He tried to make a film that would make people uncomfortable, and he really succeeded. Ask yourself if you like to be uncomfortable for one hour and twenty minutes before watching this one.

Hopefully his next project brings back Borat or Ali G. Bruno just isn't funny, and never was. Oh yeah, and this should have yielded an NC-17 rating, so be prepared if you watch it.

Vote: 4/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0889583/

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