Bruno (2009)

Box Office
3 stars out of 5 -- "It's gross, offensive and puerile in equal measure -- but it is impossible not to laugh while you wince and recoil." 06/26/2009

Variety
"Undeniably funny, outrageous and boundary-pushing...further documentation of Sacha Baron Cohen's sheer nerve..." 06/26/2009

Chicago Sun-Times
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[A] no-holds-barred comedy....Here is a film that is 82 minutes long and doesn't contain 30 boring seconds." 07/09/2009

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "BRUNO is funny, filthy and lands a few sharp punches....The writing is tight..." 07/06/2009

Entertainment Weekly
"[A] crazier, funnier, and even pricklier pincushion of a movie than BORAT....BRUNO ends on a note of scandalously funny out-and-proud triumph..." -- Grade: A- 07/17/2009

Los Angeles Times
"Like a wayward love child of Lenny Bruce and the Three Stooges, Bruno is an idiot savant of penetration -- breaking through borders, boundaries and anything that resembles good taste on his way to whipping up as much cultural anarchy as he can." 07/09/2009

USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "[T]he shock factor is undeniable....You'll cringe and watch through splayed fingers, but mostly you'll laugh." 07/10/2009

A.V. Club
"BRUNO brings an exhilarating element of danger back to comedy....[Cohen's] retained the power to shock, offend, provoke, unsettle, and most importantly, entertain a jaded, desensitized public." 07/09/2009

Wall Street Journal
"It's an exercise in offensiveness, an exploration of over-the-topness and a gleeful working of both sides of the street, with sporadic frolics in the gutter." 07/10/2009

Movieline
"[Q]uite funny....A succession of skits, gags, episodes and stunts..." 07/09/2009

ReelViews 7 of 10
Bruno allows Sacha Baron Cohen to bring another member of his rogues' gallery of misfits to the big screen. This is a worthy successor to Borat and employs the similar tactic of exploiting the stupidity, ignorance, and prejudice of Americans as a form of satire and social commentary. This time around, however, the formula is a little more mean-sprited than last time, and some moments of discomfort within Bruno result from a sense that the filmmakers are not playing fair. The spontaneity of Borat is largely absent and, although some sequences are undoubtedly unrehearsed, there are indications that some were staged. The difficulty in telling one from the other speaks to the craft used to assemble the production, but it also robs Bruno of a key element - the belief that Baron Cohen is using "real" Americans to illustrate his points. The "reality" embraced by Bruno is no less artificial than the one embraced by many so-called "reality" television shows. When it comes to making viewers laugh, however, Bruno hits a home run - provided the viewer is not easily offended. For Baron Cohen, there are no sacred cows and he sets out to shock those who profess to be "unshockable."...Ultimately, Bruno does what it sets out to do: provide social commentary through the most violent of guerilla tactics, camouflaged by waves of laughter at highly "inappropriate" comedy. Those who have seen Bruno's segments on The Ali G. Show and who have experienced Borat will not be overly surprised by where this movie goes, but the demographic is limited. There are those who will praise this as brilliant filmmaking (Baron Cohen is ably assisted by Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry Charles, who also directed Borat) and others who will demonize it as hateful, pornographic excess. Some, in fact, will use the latter reaction to justify the former. For my part, I was glad to find a movie that pulled no punches in its quest to generate laughter. For those of a non-Puritanical mindset, it's hard to deny that Bruno succeeds in being both outrageous and outrageously funny, and it's hard to damn a comedy, regardless of its faults, for those qualities. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 8 of 10
Bruno is a no-holds-barred comedy permitting several holds I had not dreamed of. The needle on my internal Laugh Meter went haywire, bouncing among hilarity, appreciation, shock, admiration, disgust, disbelief and appalled incredulity. Here is a film that is 82 minutes long and doesn't contain 30 boring seconds. There should be a brief segment at the next Spirit Awards with John Waters conferring the Knighthood of Bad Taste to Sacha Baron Cohen. If he decides to tap Cohen on each shoulder with his sword, I want to have my eyes closed...To describe Cohen's character Bruno as flamboyantly gay would be an understatement. He makes Bruce Vilanch seem like Mike Ditka. Bruno is disgraced in his native Austria when he wears a Velcro suit to Fashion Week and sticks to backdrops, curtains and models. It's slapstick worthy of Jerry Lewis. Then he flies to Los Angeles with Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), his loyal worshipper, vowing to become a celebrity...As in his 2006 hit Borat, Cohen places his character into situations involving targets who may not be in on the joke, and have never heard of Bruno or, for that matter, Sacha Baron Cohen. Some of the situations may be set up with actors, but most are manifestly the real thing. I include an interview in which Bruno lures Rep. Ron Paul into a hotel room, his appearance on a Dallas TV morning show, the screening of a TV pilot before a focus group, counseling with two Alabama ministers dedicated to "curing" homosexuals and a gay wrestling match before a crowd that is dangerously real...The movie is directed by Larry Charles, who in Borat, Bill Maher's Religulous and his TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm has specialized in public embarrassment. Come to think of it, this may explain his outstandingly awful feature film debut, the Bob Dylan vehicle Masked and Anonymous (2003). In that one, stars like Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, Angela Bassett, John Goodman, Val Kilmer and Luke Wilson appeared as straight men while Dylan as Jack Fate occasionally deigned to utter brief and enigmatic proverbs. Maybe they were told, ha-ha, they were going to appear in a real movie. - Roger Ebert