Talented comedian Sacha Baron Cohen shocked the world with his unexpectedly hilarious mockumentary, Borat.  The clueless, sexist and racist Kazakhstanian reporter sprung from Cohen’s cable sketch program Da Ali G Show. 

Despite Borat’s outrageous questions and stunts, the true genius of the film was to expose the racism, homophobia, boorish behavior and flat-out stupidity exhibited by “normal” everyday Americans.  Borat was as much a sociological experiment as a gut-busting comedy.

Cohen knew there was no way he could ever pull off a sequel.  The character was immensely popular and people would have seen Cohen coming a mile away.  A lot of people probably don’t recognize Cohen from films such as Talladega Nights and Sweeney Todd, so why not ditch the mustache and hide in plain sight? 

For his follow-up, Cohen went back to another old character and thus we receive Bruno; a gay Austrian fashion reporter.

The character is different, but the set-up is the same; turn a clueless foreigner loose on the American public and film what happens.  Cohen is as genius as always, but Bruno didn’t really work for me and in no way is it as fresh or new as Borat.  It’s not new because you know exactly what to expect this time around. 

To compensate, Cohen amps up the shock factor.  Remember the hotel room fight in Borat?  Well, expect three even more outrageous scenes this time, including an overabundance of in-your-face homosexual antics.  That very subject turned off a lot of people to this movie, and while I’m certainly no prude, I have to admit even I was a bit shocked by what I saw.  Is it funny?  I’m not sure.  I suppose it might be to some, but it comes off as an obvious appeal to “gross out” humor.

There are a few moments in Bruno in which Cohen manages to recapture the psychological experimentation that made Borat work so well.  He does a great gag with furniture that really makes you wonder what people are thinking but also reminds you of how easy it is to make people do things that are obviously wrong.  Some of it is shock value or shock’s sake and the whole “OJ” bit doesn’t really work.

You’ll have to decide for yourself how far you’re willing to go.  Cohen and director Larry Charles (known for writing some of Seinfeld’s darker moments) push the boundaries of what an R-rated film can show and you can be sure Bruno has frank portrayals of homosexuality and crudeness. 

I’m not sure what more Cohen can do with his ambush-interview mockumentaries.  As bold and as life-threatening his antics have become, the comedy seems to be drying up in favor of nudity and sexual outrageousness.  That might be enough for some, but I’m looking for a little bit more.

3 out of 5
Rated R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language

The DVD

Bruno is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and although this isn’t what you’d call a visual film, the picture quality is solid.  Of more interest is the set of bonus features.  The foremost is the commentary track with Cohen and Charles.  During the track, they freeze-frame and focus on certain scenes, elaborating on how they set-up and pulled the gags.  In a lot of ways, the anecdotes and stories are far more interesting than the film.

In addition, there are alternate scenes not used in the film involving Pete Rose, LaToya Jackson, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.  There are also a lot of scenes deleted from the film; some funny, some not.

Bonus Features rating
4 out of 5