Bruno

Title: Bruno
Rating: 2/5
Genre: Comedy, ‘Mockumentary’
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen
Director: Larry Charles

If you’re the type who still laugh’s at the likes of ‘two and a half men,’ marking its territory with the misogony card, or ‘Big Bang Theory’ where every joke is “but we’re nerds,” then you can add Bruno to the list with his repertoire of cringe worthy, blunt and obvious gay jokes. I’m notoriously difficult to please when it comes to comedy but ‘Borat’ actually surprised me. Sure, there were the excessively long periods with little happening, but it managed to deliver on what it set out to do. This time around im not so sure. In mocking homosexuality and those outwardly opposed to his demeanour, he may be exposing morons for being morons – as though we didn’t already know they existed – but ultimately he comes off as the biggest idiot of them all.

Following the journey of ex-fashion mogul Bruno on his journey to superstar fame, without particular concern of how to achieve his ambitions and only a single faithful, slightly less moronic German assistant (with a swedish accent) that keeps him company on his travels, assisting him with his cliché habits. Taking every stereotype associated with homosexuality and exaggerating them forms the majority of his character basis, coupled with his sharp witty comebacks as clever as reciting one of those god awful lines said by loners and weird kids back in school (you know the ones, “I am Rubber you are glue,” “Sticks and stones may break my bones,” “I know you are but what am I,” and so on) with extra effort to outright offend irrespective of whether actually funny or not, choosing to go for shock value above all else. This juvenile level of humour is more on par with ‘Jackass’ and ‘Dirty Sanchez,’ combined perhaps with a hint of a ‘Michael Moore’ documentary that even he has no idea what its about, except where these all remain harmless fun, Bruno is out to insult.

The scenario’s vary from the genuine (or at least semi-genuine, his outfits enough to make anyone suspicious, particularly in the wake of ‘Borat’) to the obviously – and rather cheaply – faked. One scene with scripted actors talking about their young children standing out as the most painfully obvious, condescending its viewers into believing such situations as realistic. But even at its best, the situations are so forced that you know whats coming well before it hits, delivering the punchline before the set-up to little effect. The very few times where the situation becomes genuinely amusing will come unexpectedly, and then be milked for all its worth until, too, you regret that as well.

As easy as this is criticise and demean for its adolescant brand of humour that struggles to find an appropriate market – the difficulty in finding someone both old enough to understand many of the references, yet young enough to find it amusing a rather slim gap – there is one rather, perhaps a little hypocritical positive side to this. I can if nothing else respect just how far Cohen was willing to push the character and the presented situations, not just to the moronic but downright dangerous with a reckless disregard for his own well being; there can be no doubt how invested he was in pulling off this character, and whilst this was ultimately also his downfall there are few who would be willing to parade themselves around in such a manner.

Doing risqué comedy is always a dangerous game to play as the jokes have to stand up on their own right. If an offensive joke is told but you laugh then how can you criticise it? Thus, the end question is relatively simple: would you find a long string of gay chat-up lines, obvious sexual innuendo, faked moronic insults, and one scene influenced by ‘meatspin’ amusing? If the answer is yes, then by all means, this may become your next best friend. As for myself, im off to watch something more intelligent. Like Jerry Springer.