Paula Abdul Video:

		List Price: $29.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 304 Released: November 17, 2009
		Our Price: $9.79
		Used Price: $8.68
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: DVD

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:
Good rental movie....NOT worth buying
2009-11-25 - If you're a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen then this movie is certainly worth the $5 rental fee at Blockbuster, however I'm glad I rented it instead of buying because it wasn't nearly as funny as Borat was.

It definitely had a handful of funny moments but overall this was a disappointing follow up to Borat. Most of the scenes were clearly staged and the few non-staged scenes failed to draw any truly funny reactions from the bystanders, who merely sat there like mutes.

During his earlier skits on 'Da Ali G Show' the Bruno character was hiliarous because his mere appearance was enough to unsettle people and all he needed to do was insert a few odd comments and wait for the poor duped interviewee to provide all the humor by his reaction to Bruno. Unfortunately, it seems like the movie writers didn't have the patience for that so they just chose to bombard their victims with tons of male nudity, which resulted in most people just walking away in disgust rather than providing truly funny reactions.



Sexual Harrasment is not that funny
2009-11-25 - If you need to expose yourself in order to expose bigotry, you're really just provoking it. And thats all the Bruno character does. The movie tries to win a few laughs by trying to corner heterosexuals with an overdose of homosexuality. If you laughed at certain parts of this movie then you think sexual harrasment is funny. Poor taste, the movie is trash.

Insanely funny
2009-11-25 - I try to watch a film at least twice before I attempt to review it, and after watching Bruno a second time I can safely say that it's even funnier than the first time I saw it. It's strange how seeing a movie in the theater can influence your memories of a film, but I can remember there not being a lot of laughter, and people were clearly leaving mid-way through the show. When you're sitting in a theater filled with people who are expecting a light-hearted, brainless, comedic romp who have just discovered that they may actually have to face some ugly realities in their own lives then it's not surprising that they act offended and eventually leave. I watched this in the comfort of my home last night, and I was simply astounded at how high-brow Sasha Baron Cohen's humor can be. This guy is absolutely brilliant, and once you accept the hilarity on screen you really begin to appreciate the sheer nerve he has to pull this stuff off! I don't think the "Jack-Ass" guys would have the balls to pull off what Cohen does. And that's the difference to most American film goers, I think. Watching "Jack-Ass" doesn't require you to examine why you're laughing, or not laughing, at what the guys onscreen are doing. When you watch Bruno trot onstage with a black baby in front of a black audience on some terrible talk show, any one of conscience is going to ask, "why is this show on TV in the first place?" The point that the offended masses don't understand is that Bruno isn't doing anything that isn't already being done in plain view. What's more offensive: Bruno pointing out that rampant homophobia continues to grow in the United States, or actually realizing that this same hatred of gays simply contradicts their safe way of life? People don't want to be reminded of ugly truths, and Sasha Baron Cohen points this out to the masses, and does it hilariously.
I don't find anything distasteful or offensive about the film "Bruno" whatsoever. I am far more offended when I read about the obsession people have with television programs that celebrate the lowest levels of mediocrity imaginable (Jon and Kate Plus 8, anyone?). And if shots of naked men are what you find "offensive" you need to grow up, really.
The docile masses lining up to watch reality television are what this film is aiming for. The brilliance of Sasha Baron Cohen lies in his ability to show those same people how ridiculous they are without them being smart enough to realize it.
High-brow humor at its finest, make NO mistake about it.

Unbelievably Bad
2009-11-24 - Dull, boring and sorely lacking in shock value. In fact, the pre-release hype and publicity were much more funny and exciting than this insipid film. I fail to see the appeal. Moreover, there is something of a cruel and sadistic streak to ambushing, intimidating and provoking innocent onlookers into becoming unwilling participants in a humorless farce.

BRUNO!
2009-11-24 - Did you like Borat? Then you'll probably like Bruno. Because guess what? The story ache is exactly the same from beginning to start. Foreigner comes to America, disrupts things, falls to a depression, finds Jesus, finds love, etc. It was just more shocking and more gay.

As for the DVD? The foil on the cover that they use is really cheap and came off when I tried to peel some stickers off the front. And the whole coloring of the movie seems really off...too yellow...or too green.