Tag: Sacha Baron Cohen

Bruno

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:21 Long
A DVD Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Bruno
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Paula Abdul, Ron Paul, Snoop Dog
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release Date: 2009
Kiddie Movie: Please send them to bed.
Date Movie: If she liked Borat, she might like Bruno.
Gratuitous Sex: In way, crazy ways. And then some more.
Gratuitous Violence: Some whipping and ultimate fighting that turns into, well, nevermind.
Action: Nah.
Laughs: Much better when you can fast-forward through the “movie” parts.
Memorable Scene: The hotel room with Diesel.
Memorable Quote: “It’s like riding a little horse.”
Directed By: Larry Charles

As sometimes I am lazy, after I let you know about the DVD, below is my original review of the movie “Bruno” when it hit theaters. Having seen the DVD, however, I have to say that:

As a movie, with plot, acting, scenery, etc., “Bruno” is still just dumb and probably deserves the Zero Stars my BFF wanted to give it.
On DVD the movie is so much better; I’m even saying 4 stars out of 5, instead of the 3 that I gave the theater version.
So I can hear you saying something like “How can the movie be better on DVD?”, and my simple answer is because you can easily fast-forward through most of the “plot” parts and just laugh at stupid people, and now add the extras on the DVD that give you way more people and things to laugh at. Yes, I still found the hotel room scene with Diesel a riot, but that’s not what we watch someone like “Bruno” for, do we? I don’t think so. I think we watch him for making ordinary people look like buffoons, the movie still has plenty of them to laugh at, but the DVD gives you another hour of buffoonery because, come on, who wouldn’t watch, in utter amazement, as baseball great Pete Rose is being interviewed by Bruno while sitting on a human chair, and when LaToya Jackson says “It’s like riding a little horse,” I almost spit my drink on my TV screen. The extended fashion show footage is great, the extended TV station footage is unbelievable, I am even more disturbed by parents who want their children to be in movies, and for great viewing pleasure, the interview with Hollywood Agent Lloyd Robinson is hilarious. There is also a commentary track where Sacha Baron Cohen and the director, Larry Charles, explain some of the scenes, but I’ll be honest with you, as funny as the movie can be, I didn’t want to spend another hour and a half re-watching it, again, to find out how dumb people really could be.

With that, if you like the jokes of “Bruno” and “Borat,” go ahead and get the DVD. I didn’t see the Blu-ray version so I can’t say that it’s necessary for your viewing pleasure, but being able to jump from joke to joke, in a more rapid-fire format, makes the movie that much better. 4 stars out of 5 for the DVD, 3 stars if you are just watching the “movie” portion.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! And here’s my original review when “Bruno” was in the theater… L8R!!!

As my BFF and I were leaving “Bruno” I overheard a dude who was also leaving say to his friend “I don’t even know what to say about that,” to which his friend said he found the movie hilarious. Then my BFF said to me, “That movie was horrible… Zero stars… but you were laughing so hard I thought you were going to pee your pants.” Yup, I’m a sucker for a “talking” penis joke, and I did laugh a lot, but I also have to agree with my BFF when she said, “Bruno is no Borat.” I guess I’ll start with the loose story…

Bruno is another character created by Sacha Baron Cohen from his “Ali G” days, a gay fashion-meister who desires to be as well known as one of Austria’s other kin (there is a off color joke in there). Sadly for Bruno he is kicked out of the fashion world when an interview goes horribly wrong, and now, jilted by his lover, Diesel, he decides to head to the United States, with his assistant’s assistant, Lutz, to conquer America, only America isn’t ready for his brand of conquering.

Okay, why am I spending a lot of time on the story? It is there, but it’s not really why we want to see “Bruno,” is it? Probably not. I’m thinking most people are heading to see this movie to watch common people, and a celebrity-ish type or two, get tricked into a fake interview/situation by Bruno, the way we loved seeing people skewered by Borat, but for this one, for the most part, it’s too easy to bait people on the homophobia aspect, or even the “outrageousness” of using people as stools and trying to get Paula Abdul to eat sushi off a naked man. I have to say that this time I spent more time saying “Yup, the National Guard dudes knew they were in on some kind of joke,” and “How hard is it, really, to stir up a group of ultimate fighting fans when you start making out with the other dude in the ring?” Sure, seeing the gay-bashing by the fighting fans is sad, but not nearly as much as when Borat stirred up the anti-Semitism at the bar in the previous movie.

And yet I laughed, was disgusted at people (the parents peddling their kids to make them stars should have the local DCFS folks radars going off), and just couldn’t believe Ron Paul’s people didn’t investigate the release they were signing to get let Bruno interview him.

I can hear you asking me, “Alright, dude, just tell me if I should see the damn movie?” Well, I want to give the movie a better rating than 3 stars, but I just can’t, and it’s not because I didn’t laugh a lot because I did, and it’s not because Sacha Baron Cohen doesn’t make great use of people who just don’t have a clue, because he does. I suppose part of the thing is that the movie seems almost too easy, like I said before, but I think it’s also because the “utterly disturbing yet funny as hell” shocking scene in the movie happened too early in the film for me, leaving the rest of the film as just one little skit after another. Hmm, how to put this without giving it away? Okay, remember in “Borat” (I’m assuming you already saw it) when you were just starting to get bored with how foolish Borat was making people seem and then there was the gross-out, nude fighting scene with the obese dude and naked men running through the convention bringing you right back into the laughter? Well, for “Bruno,” that scene happens early in the film, and although there is a bondage scene in the middle of the film, it doesn’t compare, so for most of the movie it’s just another foolish person/situation followed by another foolish person/situation.

I do understand why my BFF didn’t like this movie at all, and she probably knows why I did, but unlike “Borat,” “Bruno” doesn’t seem to have the cross-over appeal to draw in more than people like me who will nearly pee their pants just at the site of a exercise bicycle with a dildo attached to it. As such, I’m sticking with my 3 stars out of 5 (for the movie only).

Borat

MPAA Rated – R
It’s 1:24 Long
A Review by:
– The Dude on the Right

Borat
Movie Stats & Links
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian
MPAA Rated: R
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: 2006
Kiddie Movie: Only if you want them twisted for life.
Date Movie: Only if the both of you laughed at the trailer.
Gratuitous Sex: Almost, and it was really gross, not that anything was wrong with it.
Gratuitous Violence: Nah.
Action: A chase scene, in the nude.
Laughs: Nearly an hour and a half worth.
Memorable Scene: As gross as it was, the naked scene.
Memorable Quote: Way too many to list.
Directed By: Larry Charles

The wonderment is already out there: What scenes in “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” were genuine, and which were staged? Some parts are pretty easy to figure out that Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Azamat (Ken Davitian) are acting to keep the story moving along to keep up with the end plot of the movie (that being Borat wanting to take the virginity away from Pamela Anderson), but for the most part “Borat” ends up being a bizarre look at bigotry, racism objectification of women, political correctness, political incorrectness, and, oh hell, society in general. Pretty much like Sacha Baron Cohen has been doing with his HBO series for a few years now. Here’s the basic run-down…

Borat is supposed to be a television commentator in Kazakhstan. We are introduced to his village where everyone hates his neighbor, his sister (whom he makes out with) is proud of being a great prostitute, and his wife threatens that if Borat cheats on her she will chop off his cock. In any case he has been charged with filming a documentary in the United States to see how life here can help the people of Kazakhstan. At first Borat is just supposed to hang around New York City and interview people, but he also keeps living like he did in the old country, I guess, as he washes his clothes in Central Park, takes a dump in an inappropriate location, and jerks off in front of store windows, in full view of the public. Then, in his hotel room, he is watching a rerun of “Baywatch” and falls in love with C.J. (and who wouldn’t). He learns C.J. is actually Pamela Anderson, and Borat decides to take his documentary cross-country on the quest for his true love.

Along the way Borat continues his documentary, finding himself at a Gay-Pride Parade, a religious revival, a rodeo, a high-society dinner, in a camper with fraternity dudes, and a host of other locations where Borat can show people at their best, and at their worst. And you would think it wouldn’t be easy for Borat to show people at their worst, but for this film it’s almost like shooting fish in a barrel as people tend to show their attitudes about race, women, foreigners, and the right for a man to buy a gun to shoot a Jew if he wants to. And, oh yea, there’s also some nude wrestling, but not the kind I was looking for.

I really don’t want to give too much away about this movie only saying that it has the potential to offend the shit out of you, especially the beat-down Jewish people get, but I suppose everyone gets their share of bashing in this movie, and it’s especially seen in the prejudice of many of the people Borat interviews along the way. But somehow Borat is able to help you see the prejudices, how ludicrous they are, and it made me laugh.

I would like to think the entire film only had two people acting in it, those being Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat and Ken Davitian as Azamat. IMDB also lists comedian Luenell, and has Pamela Anderson as uncredited, which does make sense in the grand scheme of the movie. What is sort of scary is the rest of the grand scheme of the movie and the fact that the rest of the folks on screen either A: Signed away a release of their actions without reading exactly where it was being used, or worse B: Signed away a release of their actions knowing exactly where it was being used (although I could see the college fraternity kids signing away their rights in either case). For me, though, the movie is funny as hell, as well as a little sad, but I’ll tell you what, if some stranger approached me on the street trying to kiss me on the cheeks, I would probably run away from him as well, no matter if his intention was just to say “Hello.”

If the thought of a movie having a scene called “The Running of the Jew” appalls you so much that seeing it during a film would have you walk out, well, you might want to save your money and not see “Borat” because, well, you’ll only see about 5 minutes of the movie. But if anything in the trailer for the film made you laugh my guess is you already understand the humor in the movie, and let me assure you, the trailer doesn’t even show the best parts. It’s 4 ½ stars out of 5 for “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” It would have been 5 stars except as funny as the nude scene was, it didn’t involve Pamela Anderson.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!