I must say that I have no idea why I picked this as the first movie to review. On July 24th (my last day of work), I wanted to have a little celebration so I invited a few friends over for a barbecue and a movie. The options were Bruno or The Hangover and since everyone except for me and Stacia had already seen The Hangover, we decided on Bruno.In case anyone hasn't heard of the movie, I'll give a brief (and probably somewhat inaccurate) synopsis. Basically, in the movie Sacha Baron Cohen plays Bruno, an overtly homosexual fashion icon from Austria. Well, he makes an fool of himself at a European runway fashion show and is ousted from the fashion industry. So....he decides to come to America to try and become a celebrity. The rest of the movie is basically the disaster that ensues from this venture.
Now if anyone hasn't seen Borat or Sacha Baron Cohen in action, you need to know that his movies are him acting like these characters in real life and then filming peoples reactions. So, basically they are pretty much unscripted and a lot of times uncomfortable to watch (at least for me). For example, in Bruno he is at the airport and pulls a cardboard box with holes in it off of the baggage claim carousel. He then proceeds to open the box in front of all of the other people waiting and pull out a 3 year old African child. As you can imagine, there is a lot of shock from the other passengers! Antics like these are pervasive throughout the entire movie.
One thing that is interesting about these movies is that if you can get past all of the ridiculousness, they have a strong underlying theme and message about society. While there is probably more than one, the main thing that I saw in Bruno was the obsession in our society with celebrity. In one scene he is interviewing parents to appear in an ad with his new adopted son. He is asking them to have their children do the most idiotic things and they all agree with them! For instance, he asks one mom how much her daughter weighs. She responds, 30 lbs. He asks if she could have her lose 10 lbs in a week and she says, "of course!" He then says if she can't would she be willing to have her daughter get liposuction to lose the last few pounds. And she agrees to that! WTF?! Sorry, but I was hoping and praying that this in no way could be for real. And as an expectant parent, I was both sickened and saddened by this.
Deep down, I think these are the kind of reactions Cohen is after. While he appears to be just parading around like an idiot, I think he might actually be a genius. He definitely takes his opinions and portrays them in ways that that are shocking and often crude. Which leads me to the one part of the movie that HAS to be mentioned...the male nudity.
Well, I had heard that the movie featured lots of male full frontal nudity (maybe that's why I picked it over The Hangover :) ). So, in honor of this I decided that we should have bratwurst for dinner! I figured why not make it a sausage fest all the way around! There was actually a lot less than I expected. There was basically just one scene...but it was long! And no, I'm not referring to the genitalia per se, just the length of the scene :). And of course, it was crude...and a little bit funny.
So, after all of this nonsense what did I actually think of the movie? I thought it was okay. Climactic, right? There is one main problem I have with both Borat and Bruno and that is the fact that Cohen talks in very thick accents throughout both movies. Because of this, I can only understand what he's saying about 60% of the time (yes, I realize that this makes me seem 90 years old). This causes me to miss a lot of the jokes or take way too long to actually comprehend what I'm hearing and by that time they aren't funny anymore. Also, I'm not normally excited by humor that is derived from putting other people in uncomfortable situations. I'm more of a slapstick, poop and fart joke type of girl. So, if you're into crude uncomfortable humor, this may be the movie for you!
Now even for dud like me, this movie did have a few highlights. One scene where I laughed out loud was when a "reformed" gay man was talking to Bruno about how to become straight. He was saying things like, "I know women can be irritating but they're good for us," and "you just have to find one that you can stand." Also a doozie was when he said, "I know they talk a lot and sometimes never get back to their original point, but that's just something we have to deal with." I will say that I was almost peeing my pants at this point. Fabulous!
So, I would say if you don't mind crude uncomfortable humor give Bruno a try! But if you're easily offended in the least, this probably isn't the movie for you. Also, I think watching it with a drink or two in you wouldn't hurt! Enjoy....