Bruno [Region 2 DVD]

13 hr flight from Shanghai to Heathrow, I thought I'd choose Bruno from the menu of films to watch on my personal screen. Trouble is when it started there was plenty of Willies and "bottom action" and I was looking sideways at the elderly gentleman on my right to make sure he wasn't looking at my screen. It's not smomething you'd want to watch with your parents or any elderly person.

However, it's hilarious. I tried so hard not to laugh out loud because I didn't want the old man to divert his attention to my screen. In the end I tried so hard not to laugh that I started making snorting noises and tears wre coming down my face. It is VERY funny and yes, in parts he does go a bit far with the "sausage jockey" antics. The bit where he asks the mother of an aspiring baby actor whether she would be able to reduce the baby's weight from 30kg to 20kg for the shoot. She agreed and then he asked whether she would be prepared for the baby to have lipo-suction if she had not achieved this weight loss "If that's what it takes, yes" She said. Unebelievable and that's why it's worth watching.

This film has been out on DVD for a while now, so most of what's to say about it has already been said, but even so, I thought I'd share my comments.

I've had this DVD since it was first released, but didn't get around to watching it until last night, having been hesitant after hearing mixed reviews. But with nothing better to do last night, I stuck it on...

First off, I'll agree with the many that the film is nowhere near as good as the truly excellent 'Borat' before it. Of course, with 'Borat' we'd already seen just how far Baron Cohen was prepared to go and what to expect, but even so, if 'Bruno' had come before 'Borat', I still think that 'Borat' would be the far better of the two.

But that's not to say 'Bruno' is no good. As with the Beatles' lesser songs still being good songs, lesser Sacha Baron Cohen is still good Cohen.

One of my main problems was that I found it quite hard to actually warm to Bruno the character. For all of Borat's "eccentricities", he is for the most part a lovable character, whereas Bruno, I didn't totally care for.

There are some truly great moments, though for me - even though they clearly tried to be even more "extreme" - didn't quite match the giddying heights on 'Bruno'. At points, it almost felt as if they were trying too hard. And while there are some excellent moments of spontaneity with unwitting 'victims', much of 'Bruno' feels to be too staged for my liking. Somehow I was just expecting more from the whole thing.

Well, that's the bad out of the way, but there is good - as I say, some really good moments that will have you laughing out loud. I also like the overall structure of the story, and how it develops and wraps up at the end.
Some of the things they dared do are breathtaking - none more so than the whole terrorist segment (without giving too much away).

The DVD extras include alternative / extended / deleted scenes, some of which are better than others, and a commentary track, which I haven't listened to yet.

This film is certainly not for you are easily shocked. If you haven't seen 'Borat', I'd definitely recommend to buy that DVD first. But if you liked 'Borat' and want more, 'Bruno', while far from perfect, at least delivers some decent laughs. For all I've said against it, I still enjoyed it enough to give it a reasonable 4/5.

I was told that this was over the top and although funny in places it was too gross.
With such a recommendation I had to see what was so bad/good about this.
First viewing I was surprised at what he could get passed the censors. The views expressed by the American public were outrageous.
Then I watched it with the commentary and it was even better, the automatic and unconscious homophonic reactions from the public is frighteningly real.
So many stand-out moments including the black baby talk show, the cage fight, the baby model interviews etc.
Some set pieces went too far, more rude and less funny than they should could have been, but hey the majority was fantastic.