Review of Brüno (2009) by Amoviecritic — 09 Jul 2009

I thought it couldn't get more disappointing this summer than Transformers 2, but here's another sequel, of sorts, that totally fails to live up to the original. Bruno, the 2nd cinematic film starring a Sacha Baron Cohen character, falls flat, flat, flat.

It's got a couple pretty funny moments, but overall it lacks almost everything that made Borat a classic. Borat, for what it was, had a story, it had 2 likable characters driving the thing, it had a great premise and it got many laughs from just showing your average person's reactions to the zany antics of Borat and his camera man as they journeyed across the country.

Bruno, unfortunately, only has a little of this; most of its jokes are instead based on a series of bits and interviews, few of which feel real, and almost none of which have any sort of payoff, a lot of them seeming like they should have been on the "deleted scenes" section of the DVD.

I kept waiting for a laugh as funny as the hotel room scene and the following chase from Borat and it just never happens. The movie ends with almost no payoff (or explanation of how Bruno managed to afford his own wrestling show,) and I think everyone left a bit disappointed.

I was surprised to learn that Bruno's actually a good 5 minutes longer than Borat; it felt so much shorter, somehow, seeming like a much emptier film. This isn't a very funny character, these situations aren't very funny, and it's very hard to tell what was staged and what isn't, which is never a very good thing in a movie like this.

I'm not a cynical viewer at all, and I was willing to believe that ALMOST all of Borat was not staged, but Bruno had even me scratching my head and wondering, if this event wasn't staged in advance, how things happened the way they did.

A disappointment. Transformers 2 had more laughs, and even that was a movie that disappointed me.