Hey folks, Harry here... Seems they screened BRUNO tonight and from the sound of it, it's a homerun. Can't wait to see the whole think like these two... Watch out for Spoilers...
hi harry, i've been a longtime AICN reader but this is the first chance i've had to review a film before it came out. until this past december i lived in destin, FL and, believe it or not, they don't conduct too many test screenings down there. which is one of the reasons i moved to long beach (the other being the company i work for kinda forced me too - but hey, i coulda quit, right??). anyway, as luck would have it, I was walking into a movie theater this past weekend to check out watchmen (loved it but missed the squid) when i spotted a dude giving out free movie passes. i ask him what movie he's pushing, and he says the latest sasha cohen film. that's all i needed to hear - i was in. i laughed my ass off at borat and have been impatiently waiting for the bruno movie ever since people first started reporting sightings of the character forever ago. but enough of the annoying background - you just want to know about the movie right? well i'm happy to report it's everything i was hoping for - shocking, jaw-dropping and TOTALLY FUCKING HILARIOUS. like borat, real people "co-star" in the scenes with him, and the interviews move the story forward. also like borat, he has a sidekick, a nerdy assistant named lutz. i know the way i'm describing the movie it sounds like borat 2, and in many ways they are similar, but the two movies definitely felt distinct from each other. for starters, bruno felt like a much bigger movie than borat, spanning the world (including the middle east!). also the people that cohen goes after are different - lots of fashion people and hollywood-types. and stylically it's slicker than borat, which makes sense since he's a super cool austrian fashion reporter as opposed to a clueless kazakstani journalist. in terms of the plot, i don't want to give too many scenes away, because part of what made the movie for me was the surprise of what cohen gets away with. so i'm gonna to try and give you a plot description that doesn't spoil any of the jokes. the story starts with Bruno getting fired from his job as a fashion reporter in Austria. so he heads to the US to become a famous celebrity, but everything he tries to make himself famous - shooting a tv pilot, being an extra in a movie, bringing peace to the middle east, adopting a baby - doesn't work, and he concludes it's his gayness that's holding him back. so he decides to become straight and the last third of the film revolve around his efforts to become a "normal" heterosexuel male, climaxing (pun intended) with him hosting a cage fight for thousands of crazy rednecks. here's a few things that were clear by the end of the movie: -sasha cohen has huge, ginormous balls. he puts himself in some crazy ass dangerous situations where i was really concerned for his physical well-being. - homophobia is alive and well in the US. i mean i guess i knew that but when you see how pissed some people get it really drives it home. -if you're at a test screening, and you try and flirt with the decently cute girl sitting by herself in the row in front of you, make sure her boyfriend (at least i assume it was her boyfriend) is not just getting popcorn. awkward! -showbiz parents are nuts. bruno interviews a bunch of them for a baby photo shoot he is putting together. to me, it was the most shocking scene in the movie - these parents were willing to do ANYTHING to get their kids the part. -don't want to give away any names, but the credit sequence at the end of the movie shows there are a bunch of rock icons who have an awesome sense of humor. in case it's not clear, i thought this movie was FUCKING AWESOME. yeah, as I admitted earlier, I loved borat... but my buddy who I took with me didn't like borat (or at least the parts he had seen on HBO) and loved bruno. It's not perfect - could probably be 10 minutes shorter (although they said at the start the film was a work in progress, so maybe it will be by the time it's released) and the scripted stuff is not as funny as the stuff with real people - but I will say this: it is one of the funniest, craziest, most shocking movies i have ever seen and, with respect to the apatow clan, sasha cohen is the king of comedy right now. is bruno better than borat? maybe, depends on your taste. i will say that my buddy and i both laughed to the point we were crying, and some dude i was talking to in the lobby afterwords said he laughed so hard he broke his chair!! i'm sure you'll get similar reviews about this screening (and probably better written - cut me some slack, i'm not a writer) but i wanted to be the first to say bruno rocks! one final note - i have no idea what the actual title is, since it wasn't really said anywhere, but I guess it's just "bruno"? and oh yeah (I've always wanted to say this!!!) - if you use this review, call me LEISURE SUIT LAWRENCE!
And here's OrkyDorky
Preview screening of BRUNO I saw a screening tonight of Sasha Baren Cohen’s new movie BRUNO in the marina. WOW, I have to say I have NEVER quite seen a movie like this. However outrageous BORAT was, this one is 10 times sharper, wittier and altogether ballsier. And I fucking LOVED every second of it. It will be very interesting to see how the masses will receive this movie: it is not just gay but sexually graphically, hilariously GAY. I dug it and I’m not even a homosexual! So the plot is based around the BRUNO character (who was the Austrian fashion reporter character from Da Ali G show). Bruno is busy covering fashion week in Milan when he gets the bright idea of wearing an all Velcro suit to a runway show. The suit sticks to everything and ruins some poor designer’s show. So Bruno is basically cast out of Milan and the fashion world altogether. Announcing that those people are shallow, he decides to go off to Los Angeles to become a celebrity instead. After an attempt at a celebrity talk show (where he interviews an oblivious Paula Abdul on human furniture as well as the very first ‘white hot white supremacist superstar’, Bruno is sort of drummed out of Hollywood and decides like Angelina and George, he needs to find a ‘new shithole to save’..or as he says…’Clooney has Darfur, I need to find my Darfive…’ and off to the Middle East he goes…there’s a scene where he attempts to mediate between Israel and Palestine by telling them “Why are you all so mad at Hamas, Pita bread is the real enemy, yes?” Anyway, like Borat the plot is secondary and episodic, with Bruno attempting to become straight (‘like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kevin Spacey’)… This is a hard review to write as I don’t wanna spoil any of the surprises (and shock value is obviously a big factor here) but I would like to comment that Cohen’s brilliance isn’t merely comedy or shock – this thing is like a social experiment on America. Because people’s reactions to his antics are SO surprising and actually insightful. Like, this is the REAL America, folks. The movie ends with a steel cage match hosted by the newly rehabilitated ‘Straight Dave/formerly Bruno’…and it will blow your mind. Nervy, outrageous, shocking…hysterical. BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR. HANDS F*%*ING DOWN Yours, Orkydorky P.S…..ready for this? Bono, Coldplay, Elton John and Snoop Dogg sing his Charity single at the end….G-E-N-I-U-S!!!!!!!!
