Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno: He’s No Borat
The filmmaker's raunchy, mean-spirited movie is relentlessly shocking but rarely in a clever or inspired way.
About two thirds through Bruno, the film finds its higher calling — finally. It’s a movie designed to expose homophobia in all its ugly forms.
But by now we simply don’t trust the filmmakers.
The signature moment features Bruno and his put-upon assistant (Gustaf Hammarsten) making out before the start of a mixed martial arts bout. But director Larry Charles (Borat, Religulous) has already milked every prior reaction shot so that when we see jaws drop anew here, the sense of comic surprise is lost. Heck, Baron Cohen even incorporates the detestable God Hates Fags group into the film but can’t find a way to wring laughter from their boorish behavior.
It’s all so poorly constructed, it might leave potentially aggrieved interest groups feeling sorry for Baron Cohen rather than offended. Perhaps the most inflammatory moment comes during a clearly staged talk show sequence in which the entire audience is filled with stereotypical black people, their eyes popping over Bruno’s antics. Don’t be surprised if the Rev. Al Sharpton, currently on a roll after turning the late Michael Jackson into Rosa Parks 2.0, gets in a snit over the scene.
Worst of all, Baron Cohen can’t make Bruno either lovable or laughable. He’s just an overwrought gay figure who speaks in the kind of pidgin Austrian accent you’d find in a bad Carol Burnett Show sketch.
Now we know why that long-gestating Sprockets movie from Mike Myers never got off the ground.
Scene after scene build to what you expect to be a rich comic payoff and then … nothing. And Baron Cohen, who clearly ad-libbed some killer material in Borat, can’t save himself here. Where are the witty rejoinders which added an extra level of humor to Borat?
The film almost makes you rethink him as a comic force of nature. He can’t even appear convincing in the movie’s few dramatic moments, drawing emotional blanks rather than putting in the effort to show a flicker of humanity.
Say what you will about Borat, but his naivete made audiences sidle up to him no matter how outrageous his behavior proved.
A sharper assault on homophobia might have shown how uncomfortable people seem around gay behavior. Here, straights, gays, and transgendered alike would be wise to stay as far away from Bruno as possible.
Bruno wraps with a charity song parody featuring heavy hitters like Bono, Sting, and Snoop Dogg crooning along with Bruno. The notion of mocking celebrity sing-a-longs is as out of touch with today’s funny bone as the rest of Bruno.
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Christian Toto is a freelance writer and film critic for The Washington Times. His work has appeared in People magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Scripps Howard News Service. He also contributes movie radio commentary to three stations as well as the nationally syndicated Dennis Miller Show and runs the blog What Would Toto Watch?
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31 Comments
1. Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno: He’s No Borat | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century:[...] the article here: Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno: He’s No Borat This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Pajamas Media. You can follow any responses to this [...]
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:08 am 2. "progressive"watch:Beware the heterophobe,
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:10 am 3. LeighB:He will break your words and bend your earlobe.
I have always found the SBC characters more mean spirited than funny. It’s fair to say I don’t get his brand of humor any more than I understood why Andy Kaufman was funny.
Bruno may do better in some countries than others and with some groups. If Reverend Al gets involved I’ll tune in to see which man prevails in his quest to challenge stereotypes. Perhaps they can both move the dialogue forward.
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:45 am 4. vivo:No comment until I see the movie.
Jul 10, 2009 - 5:30 am 5. sheesh:Yeah, I felt the same way about An American Carol.
Jul 10, 2009 - 5:46 am 6. Mary Jackson:Hmm. I loved Borat, and have enjoyed the brief interludes I have seen with Bruno. I’m going to see the film and hope it isn’t as bad as you say.
Jul 10, 2009 - 5:49 am 7. blotto:American Jews and other progressives will ensure that it makes a profit. It is from the same strain of movie making that has made Adam Sandler a star(?).
Jul 10, 2009 - 7:01 am 8. ‘Bruno’ - We miss ‘Borat’ already — WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH?:[...] You can read my review at PajamasMedia. [...]
Jul 10, 2009 - 7:06 am 9. CR:Unquestionably, SBC’s humor is low-brow; probably as low as you can possibly get without an NC-17 rating (and he probably should get that in some of his work). Still, judging from Borat and Ali G, he also elicits laughs by challenging the comfort zone and pointing out the absurdity of assumptions we take for granted. Prime examples are Borat wanting a “[chick] magnet” installed in his new car or Ali G wanting to sample the illicit drugs displayed by a police officer live on the air. Yes, he does so mercilessly at the expense of the uwitting dupes on camera. It is like an intentional ambush in an alleyway and we are on the side of the guy wearing the $#!+kickers!
Jul 10, 2009 - 10:08 am 10. jvon:Sounds totally gay.
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Jul 10, 2009 - 11:52 am 11. Disco Prime:Strange, I thought Cohen was at 14:59 not too long ago. I guess now that he has exhausted his trifecta of characters, he will be looking for a new job?
Jul 10, 2009 - 12:06 pm 12. Robert O. Lopez:This is the problem with the present-day Left. They have become the political camp of comedians: Franken, Stewart, Maher, Behar, Sykes, Fey….
At first owning satire helps a political group like the Left because it makes the group seem wittier and sharper. Then after a while you realize they’re just mean and counterproductive, immature, never offering anything redemptive or positive, just relentlessly mocking and deflating everyone else.
Ergo, the present Democrat party. The party with lots of laughs, a wheelbarrow full of debt, and lots of smug, insufferably self-righteous people who don’t actually know how to do anything.
Jul 10, 2009 - 12:45 pm 13. Emma:Here’s the bigotry-exposing satire *I’d* like to see: SBC as a southern Republican in Hollywood, where he exposes the “open-minded tolerant liberals” as people who feel perfectly comfortable prejudging someone on the basis of their race, religion and geographical origin.
Jul 10, 2009 - 12:45 pm 14. Roderick Reilly:You wasted words on that degenerate freak? When’s he going to be fifty so he can have an unexpected heart attack?
Jul 10, 2009 - 1:35 pm 15. Janegirl:I would like to see a movie about black kids in a summer camp who join a private pool operated by white liberals who voted for Obama and then decide to cancel the black kids membership because they don’t want all those kids around and… oops! Sorry – that really did happen – my bad
Jul 10, 2009 - 1:55 pm 16. Oscar the Grump:Janegirl
Jul 10, 2009 - 2:16 pm 17. seansarto:You mean to say that there are white liberal bigots?
For most of my memory, one of the essential characteristics that distinguished an “R” rated film from an “X” rated one by MPAA’s standards, was the on-screen depiction of male genitalia. For the longest time an’ “R” film was forbidden any imagery of the penis (”Midnight Cowboy was “X” rated…and that had no such depictions)…I think it was “Boogie Nights”…a film about Porn, no less, that lowered that standard. So one has to wonder where exactly such lenience will lead the consumer in terms of psychological determinations when it come to such films as “Bruno”? What exactly does such lenience seek to accomplish? A frank explicitness about sexuality or an exploitation of social dynamics? In terms of Hollywood and porn, it is always the later. The later is a more profitable and discreet form of prostitution.
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:24 pm 18. Sebastian Shaw:I would take him more seriously if he actually had something original to say; he’s basically Michael Moore in a thinner body & an attempt to find a punchline using stale cliches.
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:50 pm 19. seansarto:By lowering standards you create such opportunities of capital…A bit like being a land developer in South Korea with yer eyes on the property values of the DMZ. A nice bit of land there for condos…if you can get in there first.
Jul 10, 2009 - 4:54 pm 20. seansarto:For Hollywood, it is designated as “intellectual property”.
Keepin’ a clear eye on it…Could be a North Korean land developer too…
Jul 10, 2009 - 5:08 pm 21. Delia:He had to wax all of his body hair off for this ‘role’.
OUCHHHHHHHHHH! LMAO!
Jul 10, 2009 - 8:10 pm 22. Well Educated Cad:Hmmm- didn’t Mike Myers (Shrek, Wayne’s World) have a falling out with Lorne Michaels when Lorne really pushed for Mike to do a movie about a gay German character based on his occasional skits playing one on Saturday Night Live?
Jul 11, 2009 - 2:43 am 23. JD:I forget the characters name but he always said “Do you want to touch my monkey?”. Seems old Lorne couldn’t give up the idea even years later, even though it still stinks.
Sasha Baron Cohen is an observant Jew. I wish he could use his substantial talent, study, commitment and intelligence to challenge our comfort zone for the positive instead of in the ways he’s chosen thus far. Providing a laugh is good, uplifting people in a deep and meaningful way is a gift.
Jul 11, 2009 - 4:28 am 24. Pete:I saw the movie. It was not only disgusting but embarrassing and shameful. Some parts were so distasteful they were not funny. I could only sit through about 20 minutes and asked for a refund.
Jul 11, 2009 - 6:19 pm 25. Gary Ogletree:I saw a little of Borat on the tube, saw he was just a punk goofing on his betters, changed channels.
Jul 11, 2009 - 7:24 pm 26. KP:I don’t believe in censorship, but I do believe in FAIR RATINGS STANDARDS. If penises can be shown now in R-rated movies, then vaginas must be allowed to be shown too! And how the hell can the MPAA allow an ERECT PENIS to be shown and NOT give it an NC-17 rating, but then automatically give a woman’s vagina an NC-17 rating on the few occasions filmakers tried to show it???!! Why can we see penises but not women’s vaginas? Now they can even show erect penises, but still no vagina? That is completely sexist, unfair, and illegal. Maybe its because a WOMAN is now head of the MPAA’s ratings dept?
If they will allow any kind of graphic male nudity to be shown, then they must also allow any kind of graphic female nudity to be shown! That means if a film decides to show a woman’s vagina, anus, or spread-vagina (all of which are graphic nudity and no more explicit than showing an erect penis) then the MPAA MUST also rate that “R”.
The only thing I can think of is that the MPAA has changed its standards on nudity and will, in the future, also allow any type of female nudity to be shown in an R-rated film. Otherwise, its time for a CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT AND SUE THE MPAA for having a sexually discriminatory ratings policy! There is no justification to allow unlimited genital nudity of one gender to be shown with an R-rating, while giving the genital nudity of the other gender an NC-17 rating!
Jul 12, 2009 - 1:56 am 27. Hughes in Kentucky:Saw “Borat” when it was new; even at right under 90 minutes that movie felt long. Won’t get fooled again with this one: I hear that many people share this view this time around: “Bruno” is tanking nationwide. You want a movie that is actually worth the trouble of going to the cinema then see “Public Enemies.”
Jul 12, 2009 - 5:57 am 28. Jack:I’m guessing the scenes where he makes a bunch of homophobic retarded hillbillies look like, well, homophobic retarded hillbillies hit too close to home for alot of conservatives. However he does convince the famously unintelligent Paula Abdul to sit on a Mexican beaner and goes to great lengths to show us just how stupid the mentally challenged, big-assed black women who sign up to be in Richard Bey’s talk show audience really are. He’s an equal opportunity offender that’s for sure.
Jul 12, 2009 - 12:52 pm 29. ‘Bruno’ fallout — WHAT WOULD TOTO WATCH?:[...] “Bruno” also earned an impressive 69 percent “fresh” rating over at RottenTomatoes.com, not bad for a film this critic found extremely weak. [...]
Jul 13, 2009 - 1:28 pm 30. Anonymous:I’ve seen the film – it’s not the same as the one in this review. On that note, this is probably one of the most badly written reviews I’ve read in a long time – ‘Christian Toto’; that’s a name not to look out for.
Jul 14, 2009 - 1:36 pm 31. Romey:You people are real uptight. Pull the sticks out of your asses. This movie was funny–not as funny as Borat but still funny. Um, did you notice that everybody around you in the theatre was laughing ten times more than people laugh in any other movie except Borat?
Jul 22, 2009 - 7:49 am