Bruno

[K9]

TRAILER

Unsurprisingly, this looks hilarious.

[Ookii]

[Tale]

Another pic here: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/04/02/bruno-red-band-movie-trailer/

[Xuri]

More Bruno, straight from the source.

[Tale]

More Bruno, straight from the source.

I'm pretty sure that's a third party site, not official.

[K9]

Don't go see this, it's fucking terrible.

[Samwise]

Don't go see this, it's fucking terrible.

How much is it like Borat?  Borat was terrible but amusing enough that I thought it was worth watching.

[Azaroth]

I wanted to like Borat.

I think I want to like this.

I just doubt I will.

[Samwise]

You know, now that I think about it, the best part about Borat was getting bigoted rednecks to do things like lament the abolition of slavery on camera.  I expect Bruno will similarly be chock full of furious trolled homophobes.  So that should be entertaining enough.

[Abagadro]

I found it hysterical.

[Velorath]

Didn't really find it funny at all, and I found Borat fairly amusing.  Maybe it's just that Borat felt at least a little more original than the hour and twenty minute long gay joke that is Bruno.  Maybe it's that for whatever reason, Borat felt like a good mix of staged and non-staged material, whereas 95% of Bruno felt staged to me.  Maybe it's because I live in the SF Bay Area, so "OMG GAY!" just isn't that shocking to me.  The crowd reaction seemed to be pretty good though whenever I stepped into an auditorium, so what do I know?

[Riggswolfe]

I am going to go to my grave never understanding the appeal of this comedian. I didn't like Ali G. I didn't like Borat. I won't like Bruno. I have the same kind of disgust for him that alot of you have for Dane Cook and people like him.

[K9]

Don't go see this, it's fucking terrible.

How much is it like Borat?  Borat was terrible but amusing enough that I thought it was worth watching.

For me, the only thing that was similar was the concept, other than that the two films are fairly dissimilar. The problem I had with Bruno is that, unlike Borat the character is fundamentally unsympathetic. Bruno is petty, debauched and vain and just generally unlovable. There's nothing to redeem the stuff he does because frankly it's just a horrible caricature that you don't feel any empathy for. Add to that the problem that the plot is paper thin and all the situations feel completely contrived. Whereas in Borat the plot flowed in a semi-reasonable pattern, Bruno's story jumps all over the place and is really just a vehicle for the next scene, rather than something that feels like a story.

There are some laughs in there, but you're mostly reacting in shock to Bruno's actions. In Borat the humour came from the reactions of people; in Bruno the reactions are universal disgust, but almost without exception I found myself sympathising with the victims. Bruno's character is really too extreme and mindless; Sacha Baron-Cohen has gone past parody into stupidity and as a result this film isn't genuinely enjoyable. I left the cinema feeling sad, rather than exhausted from laughing as I did with Borat.

At my viewing the auditorium was packed, but the laughs were intermittent. The few big shocks got some giggles, but there was no sustained enjoyment.

Rating: Avoid

[Azaroth]

You're just a homophobe.

[Engels]

It would be intersting to hear of audience reactions based on where you live. If K9 lives in Kansas, then its understandable that the audience was luke warm, but if he lives in NY, the reaction suggests a seriously bad movie.

[Abagadro]

I live in Utah and the audience seemed to find it very funny so there goes that theory.

[K9]

It would be intersting to hear of audience reactions based on where you live. If K9 lives in Kansas, then its understandable that the audience was luke warm, but if he lives in NY, the reaction suggests a seriously bad movie.

I live in London.

[schild]

Borat was a goddamned revelation. I don't know what's wrong with some of you but I'm getting some membership cards printed for the "No Fun Club" so that you all can carry them around in your wallets. I'm not a member, but I feel like this is a service that some of you could use.

[Velorath]

Unfortunately, this isn't Borat.  In fact I thought the marketing tagline that Borat is "so 2006" to be woefully backwards since it was lightyears ahead of Bruno.

[schild]

I haven't seen this yet, I was merely responding to people naysaying Borat.

[naum]

Borat was a goddamned revelation. I don't know what's wrong with some of you but I'm getting some membership cards printed for the "No Fun Club" so that you all can carry them around in your wallets. I'm not a member, but I feel like this is a service that some of you could use.

I must confess — I didn't "get" Borat. A few funny scenes but overweighted by inane sophomoric gags that were only amusing if you were a gawking pre-pubescent. Like a failed SNL movie, just a funny skit that got extended 9X its optimal length…

[Nebu]

I must confess — I didn't "get" Borat.

Me either.  Seemed like an elaborate version of "Punkd".  I don't like getting laughs at the expense of people's stupidity.  It makes me uncomfortable for some reason. 

[Azazel]

I'm a big fan of Cohen, but the Ali-G movie was rubbish and the Borat film was very disappointing, though it had amusing bits. I'm sure Bruno will be at least ok, but for me the funniest stuff was in the various iterations of Da Ali-G Show.

 

[NiX]

I found Borat was more enjoyable when you really took in the actions and reactions of the people. Relying on Cohen's actions for all the funny would leave half the movie with unfunny parts. He also brings out how flawed society is and plays on their crazy ideals. The rodeo manager comes to mind for that one.

[shiznitz]

I am just skeptical that everyone believed Bruno was actually a real person. It worked with Borat, but Bruno is so obviously a caricature.

[gryeyes]

Probably why he targets people who in all likelihood don't have a very balanced perception of homosexuals to question it.

[Merusk]

I must confess — I didn't "get" Borat.

Me either.  Seemed like an elaborate version of "Punkd".  I don't like getting laughs at the expense of people's stupidity.  It makes me uncomfortable for some reason. 

Because you have the wisdom and the intelligence to understand, "Shit, that could be me. It wouldn't be quite so funny then."

[Khaldun]

See, I think about half the time, all that Cohen is revealing is that people are too polite to punch a shitty motherfucking asshole in the mouth, and would rather just say bland pleasant things until they can get away from the crazy. Which is a sometimes a very, very interesting thing to watch, but it's not quite funny.

[Engels]

I guess I'm wondering if he's really poking fun at homophobia, or if some of his stunts are so beyond the pale that its not really necessarily a homophobic reaction to him, but just a 'man that is just gross' reaction. I haven't seen it, just the random clips here and there. Some are fun looking, but other things strike me as missing the mark. Sure, coming onto a fundamentalist 'pray the gay away' is delicously wicked, but wouldn't the same level of discomfort be experienced by someone who is just, simply put, not gay. Or heck, even gay, but not a total slut.

[K9]

I guess I'm wondering if he's really poking fun at homophobia, or if some of his stunts are so beyond the pale that its not really necessarily a homophobic reaction to him, but just a 'man that is just gross' reaction. I haven't seen it, just the random clips here and there. Some are fun looking, but other things strike me as missing the mark. Sure, coming onto a fundamentalist 'pray the gay away' is delicously wicked, but wouldn't the same level of discomfort be experienced by someone who is just, simply put, not gay. Or heck, even gay, but not a total slut.

Pretty much.

[ashrik]

While it definitely does have it's own moments of hilarity, when compared to Borat it will come up lacking in every category. K9 got most of it right, but I still had fun with this movie. They're just coming from difference places, yet trying to arrive at the same point about people's intolerance and bigotry. Borat used the character of a the confused and unassimilated foreigner, while Bruno uses the character of the completely offensive and aggressive foreign homosexual. The scenarios, compared to the first, seem completely baked to illicit the specific response and they really suffer for it.  Criticisms talking about a threadbare plot, specially when compared to the 1st, have a lot of truth to them.

[Triforcer]

I guess I'm wondering if he's really poking fun at homophobia, or if some of his stunts are so beyond the pale that its not really necessarily a homophobic reaction to him, but just a 'man that is just gross' reaction. I haven't seen it, just the random clips here and there. Some are fun looking, but other things strike me as missing the mark. Sure, coming onto a fundamentalist 'pray the gay away' is delicously wicked, but wouldn't the same level of discomfort be experienced by someone who is just, simply put, not gay. Or heck, even gay, but not a total slut.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Camp_of_Tolerance

[WindupAtheist]

This opened a bit bigger than Borat, but looks like it's collapsing somewhat already. It did $14m on Friday but dropped to $8m by Saturday. On Monday it was kicked out of the top spot by Ice Age, albeit very narrowly by just a few thousand dollars. Mojo doesn't seem to think it'll hit $100m, compared to Borat which did $128m. About what I expected.

On the other hand, Borat only cost $18m to make. Even if Bruno cost twice as much, it'll still turn out to have had a handily profitable theatrical run.

[K9]

The figure I heard was $45 million, although that seems a bit high and is unsubstantiated.

[ghost]

While I am certainly not offended by anything Cohen does, I really don't find him funny at all.  Same with Ben Stiller, and Jim Carrey.  There's just something about those guys in general that is a bit too sophomoric for my tastes.