Review: Movie Review: 'Bruno'
Plot: When his TV show gets canceled, a gay Austrian fashionista must find new ways to become famous.
Bottom line: There are some laughts here, but Baron Cohen's act is getting tired.
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen
Length: 1:23
'Bruno' is Sacha Baron Cohen
Photo credit: AP Photo/Universal | Sacha Baron Cohen plays a fashionista in his new movie "Bruno"
"Bruno" -- The problem with "Bruno" is Bruno himself.
Compared to Borat there simply isn't enough to the character to build an entire feature-length film around him. Both spring from the brash and creative mind of British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, who unleashed them upon the world through his sketch comedy program "Da Ali G Show."
Borat, the bumbling journalist at the center of the 2006 smash "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," provided a prism through which to explore people's prejudices, hypocrisies and foibles.
Sure, Baron Cohen frequently shot fish in a barrel, but as Borat traveled across the United States trying to understand what makes us tick, the uncomfortable discoveries he made seemed endless. More importantly, for a comedy, they were usually funny.
Bruno is a one-joke character in a one-joke movie, and it's a joke Baron Cohen beats into the ground. He's a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion correspondent who repeatedly shocks people with his flamboyant gayness. The end. In small doses -- on the TV show and at the film's high-energy start -- he can be a hoot.
Here, big laughs come intermittently, and the longer "Bruno" drags on, the more apparent it becomes that there's nothing to him. He's as vapid as the celebrity culture he's stridently spoofing -- which makes it hard to care about him.
R for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language. 88 min. One and a half stars out of four.
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