Where Borat was gormless and ignorantly charming, Bruno is calculated and ruthlessly seeking publicity. This is as I see it the key difference and the primary drawback of the film, at least when compared with Borat.
This leads to a situation where Bruno attacks the superficial and those lacking intelligence, in other words the easy targets.
Look at these attacks: - Models are stupid and vacuous. - People in the film industry are judgmental. - Californian women are superficial and dumb. - People from the Southern states of the US are homophobic and largely uneducated.
This is the equivalent of saying that George Bush is stupid, politicians are corrupt and (up until recently) you wouldn't want Michael Jackson babysitting your kids. (For some reason he is now a saint again in death.)
The best laughs in Bruno happen where he pushes himself into situations far beyond what the ordinary citizen would deem out there. There is a seance that really must be seen once - then hopefully forgotten - a sight gag on Bruno's pilot that is at once gross and ludicrously hilarious, a failed bondage session and a finale that I think petered out simply because (being heterosexual) Baron Cohen couldn't bring himself to go further. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand boundaries, but if you really want to push the boundaries the next illogical step is to go the whole hog (so to speak).
To paraphrase Tropic Thunder: Bruno goes half gay, instead of full gay, except this is exactly where the audience can tell that they are watching a button pushing film, instead of a no holds barred film.
I have no idea why I just wrote a paragraph suggesting that a film should be more gay, but there you go.
If you got this far you know you are going to watch it anyway, and I would never say not to, but this is an exercise in creating controversy, and not the classic mock doc that some might lead you to believe.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Again mercifully only 80 minutes, but this time in between the bits you'll talk about at work are prolonged segments of boredom totaling around 70 minutes. I looked at my watch way too much for it to be healthy.
Verdict - Ultimately I found my experiences watching Borat and Bruno almost back to back, I have decided that the films are much like the principal characters.
Borat is dumb yet likable. Bruno is dumb, vacuous and simply tries to hard in the end. Also, Sacha Baron Cohen is a victim of himself, after Borat, it's been done.
Clear advantage – Borat.
If you liked this (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com
This leads to a situation where Bruno attacks the superficial and those lacking intelligence, in other words the easy targets.
Look at these attacks: - Models are stupid and vacuous. - People in the film industry are judgmental. - Californian women are superficial and dumb. - People from the Southern states of the US are homophobic and largely uneducated.
This is the equivalent of saying that George Bush is stupid, politicians are corrupt and (up until recently) you wouldn't want Michael Jackson babysitting your kids. (For some reason he is now a saint again in death.)
The best laughs in Bruno happen where he pushes himself into situations far beyond what the ordinary citizen would deem out there. There is a seance that really must be seen once - then hopefully forgotten - a sight gag on Bruno's pilot that is at once gross and ludicrously hilarious, a failed bondage session and a finale that I think petered out simply because (being heterosexual) Baron Cohen couldn't bring himself to go further. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand boundaries, but if you really want to push the boundaries the next illogical step is to go the whole hog (so to speak).
To paraphrase Tropic Thunder: Bruno goes half gay, instead of full gay, except this is exactly where the audience can tell that they are watching a button pushing film, instead of a no holds barred film.
I have no idea why I just wrote a paragraph suggesting that a film should be more gay, but there you go.
If you got this far you know you are going to watch it anyway, and I would never say not to, but this is an exercise in creating controversy, and not the classic mock doc that some might lead you to believe.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Again mercifully only 80 minutes, but this time in between the bits you'll talk about at work are prolonged segments of boredom totaling around 70 minutes. I looked at my watch way too much for it to be healthy.
Verdict - Ultimately I found my experiences watching Borat and Bruno almost back to back, I have decided that the films are much like the principal characters.
Borat is dumb yet likable. Bruno is dumb, vacuous and simply tries to hard in the end. Also, Sacha Baron Cohen is a victim of himself, after Borat, it's been done.
Clear advantage – Borat.
If you liked this (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com