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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Universal Studios
Salesrank: 686
Released: November 17, 2009 |
| Our Price: $12.74 |
| Used Price: $5.28 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
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!”
Description of Bruno:
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)
Bruno Reviews:
Again 
2009-12-28 - Basically this is gay Borat. I like Sacha and I think he is very talented. I enjoyed Borat because of the unique blend of scripted action and the real life reactions of people to Sacha's antics. Bruno can be a bit polarizing because of the really strong gay sexual situations. The first half an hour has Bruno having anal sex over and over with his asian lover in very creative and crazy ways. It also features Bruno simulating oral sex, and a fairly long scene of his gyrating penis. I found bits of the movie funny, but most of it stale. Maybe now that this movie didn't fare so well in the theaters, Sacha will focus on great parts like he had in Sweeney Todd.
Liberating Male Genitalia 
2009-12-25 - For those of you who may be "different" or gay and have been hurt, intimidated or shunned by society, you will love this fun-filled jab at your tormentors! As a gay person, I admit to a sadistic thrill out of seeing every single uncomfortable straight person in the film, and those watching it. The hillbilly's, the conservatives, the testosterone-filled and religious nuts all get a taste of their own medicine in this 'Borat-as-a-gay' fun fest.
Some of the scenarios are screamingly funny (the 'channeling Milli Vanilli' scene comes to mind) and you really have to admire the fact that Sasha Baron Cohen is a straight man creating these outlandish situations. So much of it comes off the top of his head, and he has an amazing ability to stay in character.
If you are "offended by male nudity"...then get a life! I saw that phrase SO MANY times in the reviews on here! How many times have you been asked if you were offended by "female nudity"? How many hundreds of movies have you seen with breasts (and "other parts") displayed across the big screen, larger than two-car garages? Did we gasp? Did we run home and complain about how "offensive" it was? I doubt it. Bruno has a penis and we see it, big deal! Well...it DOES have a urethra that talks...but still. He's an unconventional fella...
Why so many Sarah Palin-type Americans chose to view this film anyway, is a mystery. Bruno is UNMISTAKABLY gay on the cover, and they knew he was played by the same guy who was Borat. What were they expecting, a Liberace concert? The truth? Borat was offensive and STRAIGHT and everyone loved it. Bruno is offensive and GAY. And that, apparently, is 'not allowed.'
I say, buy this film. Play it when you're feeling down and it will guarantee you lots of laughs.
Borat was better
2009-12-24 - I've always been a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen. I have all of his work (that I can find) on DVD, excluding the Ali G movie..which I thought was weak. Watching his old episodes of Ali G, Bruno is hilarious; in small doses Bruno alienating dude-man-bro frat kids and wearing a suit made of dongs is really funny. Watching a feature film of it isn't as spectacular. Like the title says, Borat was way better. If you're debating buying this, skip it, rent it, and buy his HBO series on DVD. Da Ali G Show - Da Compleet Seereez
Cohen the Philosophical 
2009-12-23 - When I willingly encounter a creative work, I try to meet it on its own terms. So, when I watch a COMEDIC film, I expect it to be funny, not morally uplifting, or reinforcing my day-to-day value system. I check my morality and decency at the door. I will accept anything in the story as long as it supports its objective: being funny.
THAT is the point of humor, is it not?
But it is a psychological truism that all humor has an underside that is anything but funny. One should remember this when dealing with this kind of humor: savage, extreme, but above all, intelligently conceived.
For many years, of the three fictitious characters that Cohen created -- Bruno, Ali G. and Borat -- Bruno was the least interesting/funny to me. But in this movie, he distills the essential "offensiveness" that all three characters have in common, and pours it all into Bruno for a very powerful effect.
I admit:
Until last night, I, too, was swayed by all the negative reviews to skip this movie. But I had nothing else to rent, so I picked this up, assuming I will lose 90 minutes forever on a movie that had not reached its full potential as a comedy.
WHOA!!! Boy, was I surprised!
The genius of this film, and of Cohen's work in general, lies in setting up the parameters where ordinary people like you and I are placed in "awkward" or "uncomfortable" situation that really tests who we really are.
But that's just it: these situations are not particularly awkward or embarrassing or outrageous EXCEPT as one 'believes' them to be so. These situations are nothing more than some unexpected rips in the fabric of our socially agreed upon set of reactions. Yes, we are not a whole lot more conscious or self-determining than apes with their "Alpha male" social organization thing.
Thus, there is a dimension to this film that is actually NOT funny at all; in fact, quite sobering. Cohen shows us, without forcing anything, the FULL extent of the "insanity" that structures the social norm. Watch all the people behaving the way they do: they (we all) cling to the Symbolic Order as manifested through FORM. The humor and the horror is in the way people react to situations and form: and people come off as though they're brainwashed.
This movie can be hilariously liberating if one can see through the absurdity of how and why people are so easily offended -- and it's usually about a concept!!
But people who are just looking for easy laughs? They will find much here that "fail" as comedy, and will be disappointed for it.
When you push something to its extreme, you get its opposite. If you don't believe me, try consciously making something ugly. Then see if you could make it even uglier. Not easy. Kinda like trying to make something beautiful.
This is satire pushed to the point of forcing it to yield its opposite: philosophy. Cohen shows you that the other side of 'funny' lies the 'terrifying' -- and the two are matched in direct proportion to each other. This is why those movies that make you chuckle pleasantly enough all the way from start to finish? in the end, they leave nothing to think about.
Cohen helps you see how absurd your world-view, values, and beliefs are when left to operate unexamined by your own faculty of Reason and Humanity.
Well done indeed!
The movie was funny, but Amazon VOD wasn't loud enough to hear 
2009-12-22 - This is the first movie I have rented from Amazon's Video on Demand and I was very disappointed because the volume of the movie wasn't loud enough to hear easily, despite the VOD and computer's volume being maxed. I don't plan on renting from them again, I will just go to red box... at least I know I will be able to hear the movie and it's cheaper!
