My friend and I recently saw Brüno, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, in theatres. While I still haven’t seen Borat, I have seen pieces of it here and there, and what I’ve seen has admittedly been quite funny. So my expectations for this movie were high, as I’ve been pretty tired of ho-hum movies that I’ve seen at the bigger theatres of late.While I’ve encountered a few people who said they loved the movie and thought it was hilarious…both my friend and I were seriously underwhelmed by this movie. Simply put, we just didn’t think it was that funny. Yes, it had some good moments, but you could experience many of them just by watching the trailer for the film.
Some of the unfunniest material involved some celebrity guest appearances, like the Paula Abdul cameo, or the overdone ‘celebrity charity recording’ spoof at the end of the film. As well, certain pop culture references made in the film will date it quickly. And while there were some funny parts of the film involving some more outrageous aspects gay sexuality, nothing was particularly shocking …in a world where videos like “2 Girls, 1 Cup” or “2 Guys, 1 Horse” can circulate freely on the internet, how could it be?In his review of Borat, Dan said that film was "a wonderful critique- nay, full out assault, on the asininity of Political Correctness." Aside from this film not being that funny, the Brüno character wasn’t really used to reveal anything of any depth, whether that be about American attitudes towards homosexuality, or celebrity obsession, or even the narcissism of the type of gay man Brüno is parodying. Cohen and his collaborators just didn’t push it far enough in their writing for the film, and even if they still hadn’t had much to say, they could have said it in much funnier ways. Ah well, here's to hoping that Borat is better, whenever I do end up renting it.
