Bruno
by Larry Charles, Dan Mazer
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DVD details
Actor: Elton John, LaToya Jackson, Paula Abdul, Sacha Baron Cohen, StingDirector: Dan Mazer, Larry Charles
Brand: Uni
Cinematographer: Wolfgang Held
Cinematographer: Anthony Hardwick
Composer: Erran Baron Cohen
Editor: James Thomas
Editor: Scott M. Davids
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-11-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Bruno
DVD Review: Cohen Goes Dolce and Gabbana
Summary: 5 Stars
Sacha Baron Cohen is more of a daredevil than Evel Kenivel and Phillip Petite combined. He may not have jumped across a line of buses with a motorcycle or walked on a tightrope across the World Trade Center, but he has willingly subjected himself to dangerous people in equally dangerous situations in order to make mockumentaries. He incurs the wrath of those in positions of power. He's willing to make everyone hate him just for the sake of getting us to laugh. In "Borat," while in disguise as the title character, he sang a fake Kazakhstani national anthem to the tune of our national anthem at a rodeo full of uber-conservative Virginians. He spewed sexist banter to a group of feminists and anti-Semitic banter to his camcorder while staying at a bed and breakfast owned by a Jewish couple. This man knows no fear.
He proves that once again with "Brüno," a mockumentary from director Larry Charles. This movie is just plain funny. It's audacious at a level I've rarely seen, and truth be told, I wouldn't mind seeing more of that kind of filmmaking. Instead of a Kazakhstani journalist, Cohen plays a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista who makes it his mission to become more famous than Hitler. If that alone doesn't make you laugh, do yourself a tremendous favor and forget you've ever heard of Cohen. You must be in on the joke. That shouldn't be too hard for most audiences, I suspect. What he says and does as the title character is so over the top that it's difficult to not see it as one big joke. It seemed, however, pretty difficult for the people involved with the film, most of whom were ordinary citizens that had no idea who Cohen was or what he was doing. I initially had a hard time getting that through my head, considering how well known he is. Then again, the people he interacts with would probably not go out of their way to see a film like "Borat."
After success eludes him in his native Austria, the scantily-dressed Brüno decides to try his luck in Los Angeles. But it immediately proves more difficult than he thought it would be, prompting him to travel from city to city with his head-over-heels assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten). He tries acting. He tries pitching a celebrity interview program. He tries getting involved in a just cause. He tries swapping an African baby for an iPod. He even tries going into therapy to cure him of his homosexuality, because, obviously, all the cool celebrities are straight. At one point, he tries to prove he loves women by competing in an Arkansas cage fight, attended by a rowdy, beer-swilling group of homophobic rednecks with murderous glints in their eyes. Were there no cameras there, were there no film crew, I'm not convinced Cohen would be alive today.
What I love about Cohen is that he's more than a comedian. He may in fact be one of the most effective social critics who ever walked. As Borat and Brüno, two manifestly ignorant characters, he exposes the real ignorance and stupidity that still plague humanity. In "Brüno," Cohen and Charles have a lot of fun at the expense of various anti-gay groups. Whatever your beliefs, you can't help but feel a little sorry for Jody Trautwein, a Points of Grace Ministries youth pastor who genuinely believed he was curing a gay man. I don't feel quite as sorry for the picketers of a well-known extremist organization, who had to endure the sight of Cohen and Hammarsten strapped together while wearing super erotic gear.
But there are other people Cohen targets besides homophobes. Brüno pays a visit to a photography studio, where hopeful stage parents pretty up their toddlers for a photo shoot. A brief montage makes it perfectly clear that many of these people should not have had children in the first place. Later on, he travels to the Middle East and moderates a discussion between Israeli Yossi Alpher and a Palestinian man; the scene plays mostly for laughs, but even as Brüno, Cohen is actually addressing a serious issue, and God help us all, he was making sense. By acting foolishly, he sheds light on just how foolish everyone else in the Middle East is behaving, especially in this terrible situation. If only they saw it the same way.
And that's what "Brüno" is all about: Finding the humor in mindsets that are anything but humorous. So I guess it's good that Cohen is so willing to put himself on the line, because goodness knows laughter can often expose ignorance much more effectively than dramatic commentaries. Ninety years ago, we had Charlie Chaplin. Fifty years ago, we had Lucille Ball. Today, we have Sacha Baron Cohen. Yes, I truly believe he will someday be regarded as one of funniest people who ever lived. The funniest and the most insightful. The funniest, the most insightful, and the craziest. No one should be this blasé about their own well being ... except when we find ourselves laughing. And boy, will you laugh during "Brüno," a movie that's just plain hilarious. And brilliant.
Description of Bruno
Oscar® nominee and Golden Globe® winner Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Da Ali G Show and Talladega Nights) brings you the comedy that has started more conversations, generated more controversy and dared to go further than ever before! As brüno travels the world in search of fame, everyone he encounters ? celebrities, politicians, Hasidic Jews, terrorists and cage fighters ? becomes a stepping-stone to stardom, with hilarious results! So prepare yourself for nonstop laughs in the film Peter Travers of Rolling Stone says should be ?Numero uno on your funny-time list!?The brilliant British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen dips into his stable of pre-existing characters and comes up with a big-screen vehicle for Brüno, a gay Austrian fashionista. Brüno is blond, fame-hungry, and prone to wearing unexpected combinations of lederhosen and hot pants. But it's his runway disaster with an all-Velcro suit that gets him barred from the Milan fashion scene and leads to the cancellation of his TV show. ("For the second time in a century, Austria had turned on its most famous man," he complains.) Clearly, he needs to go to America and share his philosophy--or at least become a celebrity in whatever way possible. Brüno rolls out in a fashion similar to Borat, a combination of a scripted through-line interspersed with scenes of Baron Cohen improvising with people who don't realize they're being set up, Candid Camera-style. About half the time, this reaps some healthy laughs: a sequence with Brüno sitting down for a conversation with a "de-programmer" who claims to cure people of their homosexuality is on-topic, and there's a wild series of interviews with parents so desperate to get their kiddies into showbiz they'll agree to all manner of dangerous and irresponsible childcare. A lot of the humor isn't about Brüno's gayness at all; Baron Cohen is at his best when displaying freakish comic bravery (sitting across from a terrorist, he advises that "Your King Osama looks like a dirty wizard"). But the other half of Brüno simply misses the movie's best targets--homophobia and celebrity culture--by miscalculating the nature of ambush comedy. When Baron Cohen gets former Presidential candidate Ron Paul in a hotel room and begins to undress, Paul isn't showing bigotry by storming out (except in his language); he's understandably reacting to obnoxious behavior in a supposedly professional situation. Too many set-ups fall short of the mother-lode pay dirt that Borat so frequently hit, leaving this a distinctly lesser item in the Baron Cohen portfolio. --Robert Horton
Stills from Bruno (Click for larger image)
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