MOVIE REVIEW - Bruno

Political correctness is once again under attack in the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie, Bruno new at the box office this weekend.

Cohen is the same actor who gave us Borat in 2006, and Bruno, although his character is different, the premise is the exactly same. Supposedly catching ordinary Americans off guard, and producing a very mean spirited version of Candid Camera. Borat was such a huge hit that you knew there had to be more, and Bruno is more....of the same.

The story line here of course, is secondary to the stuff that really makes the movie. Cohen "goes after" some of the same kind of folks he did in Borat. He again hammers away at selected politicians, and generally anyone that more than likely he feels are easy to exploit, and make fools of. My gut tells me that these select groups that have different views than his own in real life. To be honest, it's just Borat revisited. The originality that Borat caught the world off guard with, is lacking here. We've been there and we've done that.

There are a few compelling moments here, if in fact all of these bits are not pre-planned and done by actors. One in particular, that I thought was easily the movies best moment. Bruno is posing as a casting director for a new TV show that needs child actors. The "real" interviews with the parents of the children is telling. The parents shown agreed to "anything" to get their kid on TV. And I mean ANYTHING. If in fact that bit is "real"..... it's real sad. I fear that moment IS true. Amazing, and pathetic. Shame on the parents.

Overall, Bruno is so much like Borat, that it's not funny really. It's extremely harsh and mean spirited, with no real redeeming value at all. I think the reason these movies are such big successes, is that we're all happy the joke isn't on us. We would all be horrified if it was us, or worse yet, someone we loved being filmed and exploited in their worst moment for eternity, so Sacha Baron Cohen could get even richer. You know, a little bit of "the jokes on you" humor goes a long way in real life, and in film. Maybe that's the real "punking" here. Maybe the real jokes on all of us. Cohen makes a movie like this, and 100 million people plop down 8 bucks a ticket to see it.

Be aware too, that you'll hear many from Hollywood praising this movie as "groundbreaking, original, earthshaking"..blah,, blah, blah.....but it's not. They're not watching is with any real objectivity. There's NO new ground here. There was some laughter today in the crowded theater, but not what you would expect.

Just a word about this. This is an adult movie. There is nothing in Bruno that will be any kind of decent influence on any kid, anywhere, who tells his parents he's going to see something else, but ends up in Bruno instead.

Bruno......Borat again. Once was plenty enough.