Bruno - DVD Review

MPAA Rating: R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language.
Runtime: 81 mins.
Director: Larry Charles
Writer: Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen; Gustaf Hammarsten; Clifford Banagale
Tagline: Bruno.
Genre: Comedy
Memorable Quote: "We have chosen your baby to be dressed as a Nazi Officer, pushing a wheelbarrow, with a Jewish baby, into an oven! "
Release Date: July 10, 2009
DVD Release Date: April 25, 2010.
Distributor: Universal Pictures

Sacha Baron Cohen has solid balls of steel. They are well-rounded, heavy as sin, and make a joyously harmonious sound with every movement of his body. As an entertainer, Cohen is fearless. His total commitment to his self-created characters is to be commended by any acting professional in the business of entertaining the masses and the thought yes, the actual thought behind his brand of satire is simply brilliant in construction. It's execution? Nearly flawless. With Bruno, once again directed by Larry Charles (of Borat, Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame), Cohen's look at America's obsession with fashionable pop culture and all things charitable and â"good for the world" like peace in the Middle East and celebrities as long as they are straight and god-fearing gets splendidly fillatioed by an Austrian fashionista and late night talk show host. Bruno is proof, once again, that the British know more about writing and performing satire than Americans do. (Note: Wherefore are thou, Samuel Clemens?)

Clearly, the character of Bruno was designed (way back in 1998) to infiltrate and expose the absurdities of the European and American world of fashion, yet, in the movie, that mocking is thankfully not the focus. Cohen has larger fish to fry. After moving to Los Angeles and discovering that it will take more than an anal bleaching session, interviews with celebrities, a videotaped proposal for sex with Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, a failed TV pilot and a memorable sÃ©ance with a dead pop star has-been (perhaps the funniest scene in the movie) to become a world-wide recognizable celebrity, Bruno turns his homosexual charm and cameras on Americans and tries to make himself straight by doing stereotypical â"straight guy" activities: camping, making love to women, attending swingers parties, and wrestling. It is at this point that the film's satire becomes dangerously real and disturbing. As Cohen and Charles's cameras reveal, the homophobic world still rules in America and in its dominance, there is a closed-mindedness that is equally dark and ominous and insanely ignorant. In one scene, a respected religious leader tries to cleanse Bruno of his homosexuality and, in doing so, comes off as extremely judgmental and unchristian-like.

The design of Bruno is undemanding in structure it follows that of Borat and it might be a bit more staged with antics than Borat was - but it packs one hell of a cultural punch. Instead of scolding the closed-mindedness of in-your-face heterosexuals when confronted with alternative lifestyles, the movie candidly shocks its viewers and, in doing so, allows some audiences to recognize and laugh at their own ignorance and their own brand of arrogance. That being said, some viewers will simply not be able to make it past the first ten minutes of the film when the flamboyant homosexual lifestyle is being lampooned. Is Bruno stereotypical of the homosexual lifestyle? Yes, but never once is the character intended to do so in a hateful manner even in its stereotyping of the heterosexual; this is fair and balanced. Movies like Bruno are a rarity because their intention is not one of simple comedy they are inspired by the idiocy of pop culture and, therefore, intended to make us reflect, as Bruno would say, â"... long and vhard and vhard and long... about... the vundersex vorld ve live in."

Component Grades
Movie		DVD


DVD Experience

Blu-ray Details:

Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Language and Sound: English: DTS 5.1 HDFrench: DTS 5.1 SurroundSpanish: DTS 5.1 Surround
Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; deleted scenes; extended scenes; alternate scenes; interview with Lloyd Robinson; Blu-ray exclusive features.