Critic Reviews
Bruno (2009) Rank 2 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (163) reviews
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Reviews by Score:
Time Out New York (Joshua Rothkopf)
Antagony & Ecstasy (Tim Brayton)
Mostly entertaining; but it's not very memorable, insightful, probing, or revolutionary. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Antagony & Ecstasy (Tim Brayton)
Courier Mail (Australia) (Colin Newton)
You may love it. You may hate it. Either way, you watch at your peril. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Courier Mail (Australia) (Colin Newton)
Sunday Mail
Clearly Bruno is not for the easily upset but if you roared with laughter at Borat the chances are that you will find the gay Austrian model even more outrageously funny. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Sunday Mail
Scotsman
As funny as some of this is, though, even with a running time just shy of 90 minutes, Bruno often feels as if it's straining for effect. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Scotsman
Empire Magazine
A patchy, hit-and-miss comedy with a few outrageous highs and a lot of just-okay padding, Bruno suggests that Sacha Baron Cohen's in-your-face fool routine sadly isn't working any more. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Empire Magazine
Total Film
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. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Total Film
Sky Movies
So it's a mixed bag - obvious targets sitting alongside worthy demolition jobs - but it's never less than amusing...and often excruciatingly funny. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Sky Movies
Times Online
Bruno shares with Borat a slightly patchy, sketch-based structure and a total fearlessness on the part of Baron Cohen. He incurs the wrath of everyone from rednecks at a cage fight to ultra- Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Times Online
Time Out
But most viewers won't have the time or energy to dwell on such worries: they'll be watching with one eye closed from embarrassment and the other welling up with tears of laughter. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Time Out
Sover.com
Most of it is low-brow comedy, going for cheap laughs at the expense of making fun at the ambushed chosen targets so they will look dumb and viewers will laugh at them. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Sover.com
Cinema Blend
Though it's missing all the relevance and subtly of Borat some of the laughs are still there and so is much of the uncomfortable silence in which ordinary people are confronted with Cohen's bizarre behavior. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Cinema Blend
Time Out New York
Swish is undeniably part of the humor, yet never in a mean-spirited way. (The target, as with Borat, is latent intolerance.) Still, those who go in with their jaws clenched are bound to find offense. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Time Out New York
Orlando Sentinel
We could fret over all the movies Sacha Baron Cohen could have followed Borat and Sweeney Todd with, but at least Bruno closes the book on this part of his career. At this point, there's nobody worth fooling who still will be fooled by his shtick. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Orlando Sentinel
Giant Magazine
Of course, nothing kills a comedy like over-analysis, so I should say that I wasn't thinking much about the deeper implications of Bruno's behavior while I was watching the film. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Giant Magazine
The Sydney Morning Herald
Most of his travels are in the US, with emphasis on gay-baiting territories deep in Texas and Arkansas. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The Sydney Morning Herald
MSN Movies
Ultimately, though, unlike the cutting and cruel satire of "Borat" (which, really, came from the same cloth as Alexis De Tocqueville's 1835 "Democracy in America," where a foreign observer checked in on the American experiment to find it a work in progres ...read the complete Bruno movie review at MSN Movies
Chicago Metromix
A funny, fearlessly absurd comedy but a shaky satire, "Bruno" often gets off-topic, confusing the message-those prejudiced against gays see all homosexual behavior as this overt-with subjects muddled by race, religion and celebrity-obsessed cultu ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Chicago Metromix
Laramie Movie Scope (Robert Roten)
This film is probably yet another bit of fallout from that blight on civilization known as reality television. God help us all. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Laramie Movie Scope (Robert Roten)
Philadelphia Inquirer
Unfunny as Bruno's celebrity ambushes are, when Cohen hits the comic bull's-eye, you feel its piercing sting. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer
The Globe and Mail
Which is precisely its problem: it's a thing , not a movie - if, that is, you believe a movie should be more than an accumulation of prankish set-pieces flimsily strung over 80 skimpy minutes. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The Globe and Mail
Windy City Times
Like Andy Kaufman, Baron Cohen is a performer who gets so into character that given the opportunity (and the right ugly reality. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Windy City Times
The New Republic
As Borat, Baron Cohen accomplished this feat by feigning an Old World primitivism on subjects such as women and Jews, and daring his marks to concur or, at least, to let his comments stand uncontested. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The New Republic
seacoastonline
"Bruno" is not for the easily offended. It's also not for those who insist their shock value humor comes with a social message. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at seacoastonline
Chicago Reader
After taking America by surprise with Borat (2006), Sacha Baron Cohen returns in another guise as the flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion model Bruno. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Chicago Reader
The New Yorker
The new creation is Bruno, the Austrian fashionista with the big umlaut, played by Baron Cohen as a filleted, feather-cut popinjay. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The New Yorker
FilmStew.com
But then it is almost as if Cohen set himself up for a fall, because it is awfully hard to mock celebrity culture when it is already self-parody. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at FilmStew.com
Washington Post
"Bruno," the latest mock-documentary satiric ritual from comic provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen, may count as the summer's biggest misfire. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Washington Post
entertainment.com
Cohen plays the flamboyantly gay Bruno, host of the fashion and celebrity show Funkyzeit and self-proclaimed most famous Austrian since Hitler. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at entertainment.com
Chicago Tribune
Is it a gay minstrel show, as some have suggested? It didn't hit me that way, yet Bruno undeniably feels like a tired comic conception. (Cohen popularized his three best-known characters, Bruno, Borat and Ali G, on "Da Ali G Show. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Chicago Tribune
Passionate Moviegoer (Joe Baltake)
Stylistically and in terms of its narrative drive, the new collaboration of star-auteur Sasha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles is nearly indistinguishable from their "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhsta ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Passionate Moviegoer (Joe Baltake)
The Age
His quest, which culminates in an attempt to turn straight, brings him in touch with all sorts of people - everything from celebrity charity consultants to Republican politicians, from Paula Abdul to Palestinian activists, from swingers to "gay converte ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The Age
csmonitor.com
"Bruno," in which Sacha Baron Cohen plays a vehemently gay Austrian fashionista, is his follow-up to "Borat," and I'm guessing lightning won't strike twice at the box office. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at csmonitor.com
filmcritic.com
Which leads to the inevitable question about Sacha Baron Cohen's work: How much of this documentary style is authentic? With Borat, the line was so effectively blurred it added to the movie's fun. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at filmcritic.com
Boston Globe
Actually, what's impressive about "Bruno" isn't the movie at all. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Boston Globe
Deseret News
"Bruno" is rated R and features crude sexual humor (sight gags and references), vulgar sexual language (profanity, slang and fairly graphic sexual talk), graphic male nudity and other nude images, simulated sex and other sexual contact (both gay and strai ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Deseret News
Bangor Daily News (Maine) (Christopher Smith)
The new Sacha Baron Cohen movie, "Bruno," really isn't a movie at all. Calling it one is sort of like calling mutton the new white meat. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Bangor Daily News (Maine) (Christopher Smith)
The New York Times
Still, the arrow of satire flies straighter and lands harder when it is aimed upward, and poking fun at the powerful and the entitled is no longer something Mr. Baron Cohen is inclined to do. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The New York Times
NYC Movie Guru
In this "documentary," Sacha Baron Cohen plays Bruno, a gay, Austrian fashionista who hosts the TV fashion show "Funkyzeit mit Bruno" or "Funktime with Bruno. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at NYC Movie Guru
Independent
This isn't to say that Bruno will not beamassive hit. There's an appetite for 'out-there' comedy, and the 18 certificate the film has been awarded will tip the wink to audiences: if you thought Borat (only a 15) was outrageous... ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Independent
The Trend (Stephen Silver)
New York Times (A.O. Scott)
Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)
PajamasMedia (Christian Toto)
Yes, the film is relentlessly shocking but rarely in a clever or inspired way. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at PajamasMedia (Christian Toto)
The Baltimore Sun
When Bruno decides that the only way to become famous is to become straight, the movie strives in vain to grow a spine. Cohen attempts to debunk homophobes while using the randy, gaudy stereotype of Bruno to bait them. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at The Baltimore Sun
KY3.com
But what was so truly, manically wonderful about "Borat" was the main character himself and how Cohen allowed the character to evolve. Borat could have been a Marx Brothers if they had not come to popularity during the Hayes Code era. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at KY3.com
Heart 106.2 (Simon Thompson)
I have to admit that I don't know where to start with this one. To start off with, most of the funniest bits, which are very funny, are in the trailer - a few new ones sneak through into the main feature but not enough. ...read the complete Bruno movie review at Heart 106.2 (Simon Thompson)
One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)
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User Reviews
User Review Summary
based on (3) reviews
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by Fragner on July 14, 2009 Coopersburg, Pennsylvania
With Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen set out to expose the ugly side of the celebrity world- ripe with vanity, shallow behavior and multitudes of ironies.
In my opinion, this film loses some of the charm that we found in Borat- Bruno is more about ...
by DefyTime on July 17, 2009 Richardson, Texas
This movie goes beyond what he has done before. So funny and so wrong at the same time. If you are not easily offended see it. ...
by Tetramobile on July 17, 2009 New York, New York
I'm sure that I'm not in the majority, but I don't think it's all that great. I've seen enough of his work that now it just seems old. The fact is that Bruno was never his best character and what he wasn't all that featured ...
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