Thoughts on Bruno: Why it’s no Borat but still (mostly) hilarious
Note: I don’t think I cover anything not mentioned in reviews but I’d recommend not reading it (or reviews in general) to avoid surprises.
I haven’t seen Borat since it aired in theaters, but I remember leaving the theater thinking it was extremely hilarious and succeeded at highlighting some of America’s prejudice (especially in the South).
Bruno had a number of truly hilarious scenes (involving the tarot reader, Ron Paul, Paula Abdul, and the Maury-like TV show) but some of it fell flat (the Middle East scenes come to mind). But it also relied a lot on really unnecessary shots of penises, Cohen’s ass, and the other dude’s ass. Relied a lot. I’m surprised the movie skated by with an R rating.
Unlike Borat, where some of the outrageousness fit in with the overall plot here it seemed like Cohen was just trying to get past the 70-minute mark. Borat also succeed in making the movie less about Cohen’s antics than people’s responses to it. There is some awesome scene involving child actors’ parents, though.
In any case, this is just a roundabout way of saying that Bruno in no way mocks homophobes or celeb-worshipping or attention-craving (like Peter Travers says). I never really bought that Borat was doing the same for racism, gun-loving, etc but I could see how it was possible. I don’t even see the possibility here.
Nonetheless, when Bruno is funny, it is truly hilarious. Those scenes make the movie well worth the price of admission as long as you don’t mind watching the penises and male asses. Overall, I’d say I really liked it and would give it four stars.
