Bruno

For a film that features a copious amount of male nudity and desires to break every tabboo imaginable Bruno is surprisingly restrained. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to be offended by in the film. Sasha Baron Cohen spends much of the film in various states of undress (and always wearing a thong) and brings his gay Austrian fashion icon in contact with a group of swingers (to try and turn straight), Paula Abdul (who he gets to sit on a mexican chair person), Ron Paul (who he tries to seduce into making a sex tape with him), Al Quaeda terrorists (in a effort to get kidnapped), Israeli and Palenstinian leaders (to try and solve the crisis), The US Army, a group of redneck hunters, and a mixed martial arts audience. He also makes copious use of dildos, and makes out with multiple men (including a philipino midget) in an effort to shock people, but even with all that it ended up feeling tame especially compared to its predecessor Borat. I think what ended up happening was that Cohen became to well known to easily draw people in to his ridiculous set ups, and as a result this film relies on more staged pieces which rob it of the sense of danger and anarchy that made Borat so appealing (in a manner of speaking). This isn't to say I didn't find elements of Bruno funny because I laughed out loud more times than not. Cohen even manages to get in several examples of pretty inspired satire even within the aforementioned constraints. Still I can't help but feel that he's played out this brand of humor and is going to have to move on to other things. I do think he's a talented guy and I'll be interested to see what he'll do with what, will have to be, a more restrained form of humor.