The needle on my internal Laugh Meter went haywire, bouncing among hilarity, appreciation, shock, admiration, disgust, disbelief and appalled incredulity. Here is a film that is 82 minutes long and doesn’t contain 30 boring seconds.
Baron Cohen is an extremely talented actor and comedian, but Bruno exhausts a vein of shock humor he has been strip mining since Da Ali G Show. It's good for more big laughs this time, but it's time for him to move on.
...despite its funniness, which climaxes (figuratively, and almost literally) in riotous fashion inside an Arkansas mixed-martial-arts octagon, Cohen and Charles's latest act of provocation suffers in comparison to both its big-screen predecessor as well as its small-screen origins.
...in spite of Mr. Baron Cohen and Mr. Charles’s high-level skills and keen low-comic instincts, Brüno is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes.
...brings an exhilarating element of danger back to comedy both by pushing the boundaries in every conceivable sense and by suggesting that its star is seldom more than a few provocations away from getting beaten senseless by the people he's antagonizing. Cohen no longer has freshness and novelty on his side, but he’s retained the power to shock, offend, provoke, unsettle, and most importantly, entertain a jaded, desensitized public.
There are 61 laughs, three dildos, one gyrating, talking penis, an anal bleaching and one very pissed-off politician in Bruno, which should be enough to make any movie fly. But there is also a pronounced nasty streak to the innumerable provocations staged by the title character that curdles the laughs and wears out the flamboyant Austrian fashionista's welcome within the picture's brief 82-minute running time.
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This movie is available on DVD/Video
ALL AVERAGE CRITIC RATING
6.6
AVERAGE USER RATING (7 ratings)
6.6
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USER REVIEWS:
dack5
About 1/2 the movie that Borat was, which I thought was genius. Actually fell asleep for part of it.
lalligood9
There's right & there's wrong. Then there's really wrong. The word for really, really wrong: Bruno. Bruno makes Borat look like an after school special.
Oracle6
There's something more subtle here in the humor compared to its predecessor; I was actually laughing very loudly during some parts. A little forced and contrived, however, during some parts...
renecalvo8
Doesn't match Borat but with friends it makes for a nice evening out.
madmitch6
Some of this was very funny but more of this felt forced and desperate to repeat the Borat "magic". It just didn't make it there for me.
This movie is available on DVD/Video