A patchy, hit-and-miss comedy with a few outrageous highs and a lot of just-okay padding, Brüno suggests that Sacha Baron Cohen's in-your-face fool routine sadly isn't working any more.
Comment
07/10/09
Brüno (2009)
67
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:203
Fresh:137
Rotten:66
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: Crude and offensive, but with ample cultural insights and gut-busting laughs, Bruno is another outlandish and entertaining mockumentary from Sacha Baron Cohen.
Theatrical Release:10-07-2009
Synopsis: After BORAT took over America in 2006, another Sacha Baron Cohen creation arrives on the big screen. In BRUNO, the gay Austrian model of the title brings his antics to the States.
Reviews for Brüno
Top CriticWhat’s lacking in the presentation, Baron Cohen makes up for with sheer ballsy, outrageous bravado. He bulldozes you with shock tactics. Brüno is a mesmerising invention, by turns repulsive and compelling.
07/10/09
Top CriticBrüno is thrillingly funny, establishing Sacha Baron Cohen as a comedian willing to go further than any other to show us what needs to be shown.
07/10/09
Top CriticClaims that the film is a social satire are as empty as Brüno’s pretty head, there’s no arguing with the fact that the film is staggeringly rude and very, very funny. The laughs build and build: it’s like surfing a tidal wave of hysterical bad taste.
07/10/09
Top CriticHowlingly funny, staggeringly rude, brutally incorrect and very often just brilliant.
07/10/09
Top CriticBut oh my, puerile and ragged as it is, and to some extent because it’s so ragged and puerile, I doubt if a more screamadelically hilarious film will be released in 2009.
07/10/09
Top CriticBrüno is a brave and necessary comedy. The film will appear to be a succčs de scandale, and will outrage many people, but it is actually just a success, a film with an instinct for naming and shaming a host of overprotected wrongs. Go and see it.
07/10/09
He’s fearless, dedicated to his art and there really isn’t anyone else out there who does this schtick half as well. A third helping of fake interviews might be pushing the gimmick too far, but Brüno is as hilarious as it is terrifying.
07/10/09
Brüno is guilty of being both unbelievably crude and side-splittingly funny. While it's certainly very close to Borat at times, as well as the proverbial bone, with Sacha Baron Cohen in such fine form almost anything is forgivable.
07/10/09
With as many gasps as laughs, and arguably less pleasurable than Borat, Brüno succeeds by sheer dint of Cohen’s unrivalled ability to conceive, and then bravely enact, the most jawdropping stunts imaginable.
07/10/09
A mixed bag - obvious targets sitting alongside worthy demolition jobs - but it's never less than amusing...and often excruciatingly funny.
07/10/09
As phoney and frustrating as it is funny. Baron Cohen’s comedy-outsider schtick is slick but well and truly found out. The clothes may be new and more fabulous, but the emperor seriously needs to go shopping.
07/10/09
That’s not to say that there aren’t funny moments here because there are some really choice moments but they are lost in the mix of purile and often uncomfortable moments that really are below what you’d expect from the team behind this.
07/10/09
There is no braver satirist than Sacha Baron Cohen today, working in any medium, and I salute him. This movie is going to be as big as Borat, and deservedly so.
07/10/09
One of the funniest things you'll ever see.
07/10/09
For the majority of its short running time Brüno is a masterpiece of comedy by embarrassment.
07/10/09
You could laugh so hard you won't be sure what will split first - your head, sides or "kugelsack".
07/10/09
Cohen’s new one-star show is appalling and funny and sometimes both simultaneously.
07/10/09
Of course, there are laughs, and if audacity were the only principle by which film-making achievement were judged the movie would be a knockout. But having groaned and winced through most of its 83 minutes I couldn't wait to get out of there.
07/10/09
There are a lot of big, cruel laughs in this but it was a lot easier to warm to the innocent Borat than the self-absorbed Brüno and the film begins to overstay its welcome even at a trim 80-odd minutes.
07/10/09
Latest News for Brüno
July 13, 2009:
Bruno 'terrorist' threatens to sue Sacha Baron Cohen 
Ayman Abu Aita, the so-called 'terroist leader' interviewed by Sacha Baron Cohen in Bruno, claims he was duped by the star -- and is now threatening to sue the filmmakers. More...
July 12, 2009:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Brüno Struts To The Top Spot
Sacha Baron Cohen scored another number one hit with his latest shockfest comedy Brüno which opened atop the North American box office bumping two-time champ Transformers:... More...
July 09, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Bruno is Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we've got Austrian audacity (Bruno, starring Sacha Baron Cohen) and graduation gratification (I Love You, Beth Cooper, starring Hayden Panettiere and... More...
July 09, 2009:
Box Office Guru Preview: Audiences in Style with Brüno
Two comedies hit North American multiplexes hoping to steal audiences away from fighting robots and animated mammoths. Looking to become box office prince is Universal's raunchy... More...
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