Snoop Dogg Movie:

		List Price: $39.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 3160 Released: November 17, 2009
		Our Price: $16.50
		Used Price: $8.99
		MPAA Rating: R (Restricted) Media: Blu-ray

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 Brüno [Blu-ray]:
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)

Brüno [Blu-ray] Reviews:
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!

I plea myself guilty, I laughed. Most of the time
2009-12-22 - I laughed hard and loud and so did my wife but I'm glad the kids weren't around while we were watching.

Those who aren't bothered by very explicit male frontal nudity, simulated homosexual intercourse, swingers filmed in the act, demonstrations of some basic hetero positions, Paula Abdul sitting on a Mexican, professional wrestling, Harrison Ford cussing, the Middle East peace process or a few minutes of Richard Bey's show are likely to fully enjoy Bruno. I laughed most of the time even at some of the more over the top situations - because the kids weren't around.

The ONE scene I did NOT appreciate was Bruno's attempt at seducing Ron Paul - a most decent, pure at heart, intelligent man. I will probably skip over it if I ever watch Bruno again and I really don't understand why it was included because RP maintains his dignity all throughout.

It would be hard to 'recommend' Bruno. I found at least one scene 'not funny' (see above), most of the movie tasteless but, at the same time, a lot of it was insanely funny - the kind of 'funny' you can't stop yourself from laughing out loud while feeling a little guilty at the same time. But such is the talent of Sacha Cohen.

On the DVD edition, besides the 82 minute movie cut, you get 40 (forty) minutes of deleted scenes, some of them as insanely funny as the scenes that made it into the movie plus 'extended' scenes, an interview with one of Bruno's victims and so on.

Coming back to 'recommending' Bruno or not... renting it may be the more prudent course of action. I bought it myself and I will keep my copy. The movie gets its 4 stars for Cohen's enormous talent - one star is lost for some really unnecessary and sometimes bordering on cruelty excesses.

80 minutes of my life...LOST
2009-12-21 - This movie was absolutely awful. As a HUGE fan of Borat, I was expecting a lot out of this movie, but this went way too far. What a complete waste of 80 minutes.

Ignore your pejudices and enjoy this hilarious and talented film.
2009-12-19 - The most important thing to mention of this film is how immensely talented Sacha Baron Cohen is. Few people are as good at what they do as Cohen is, and very few actors (including Oscar winners) are as creative, honest, daring, and most believable as this actor is. Take it from a man with a degree in Acting, Sacha Baron Cohen is one impressive actor. Half of the film is improved without any noticeable signs of second guessing. Bruno is an icon of comedic characters. He is as much a stereotype of the gay community as he is the German and fashion community, tackling three relateable social groups. Most importantly, he was created to poke fun at the ignorant and insensitive, making him as useful to our society as the movie is.

Bruno is easily the most unfairly treated movie of the year. The day it was released in theaters all that was said of it was in comparison to other comedies or to its predecessor, Borat. After the hype and praise that Borat received it is a travesty that this hilarious film was so quickly snubbed by society.
Yes, Bruno and Borat share a lot of similarities, and in all honesty if you like one and not the other it is because of your own prejudices and you just don't want to admit that.

Whereas Borat focused on ignorance in Southern USA and poked fun at how they relate to culture shock from a ridiculous Middle Easterner, Bruno pokes fun at the same people and how they relate to culture shock from a ridiculous foreign Homosexual.

Bruno not only captures with incredible grace the humor of "I can't believe that really happened" which can only appear in a documentary. Bruno also offers a great amount of written humor which pokes fun at such things as German accents, Homosexuals obsession with weight, ignorance towards celebrities, and the ridiculousness of the fashion industry.

This is a gem of modern styles of humor.