Checked out Brüno today.  Was it as good as Borat?  In my opinion, not quite.  Where Borat was consistently funny from beginning to end, Brüno really didn't take off for me until the latter half of the film, once his crusade to "become straight" began.  It is hard to tell sometimes which vignettes were scripted and which were truly genuine, but there are a few that feel more forced than others.  The ones that work, though, really click -- it's these where the audience (and myself) were roaring with laughter.  I don't want to spoil anything, but the swingers party sequence in particular had me in stitches. :)

But the best part of the movie?  The eurodance/club flavor of the soundtrack.  I'm hoping they release an album, because I'd pick it up in a heartbeat.  I want that remix of Hot Butter's Popcorn!

Oh, and I don't think I'll ever look at Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" the same way again. *_*

Like Borat, I'll probably see this when it's on DVD, but I find that part in the trailer where he's at the army camp and does a Nazi salute and says, "Yes my Führer" and the instructor's like "that's not a salute!" halarious.

Honestly, I hated Borat with every fibre of my being, and every time I look at the guy's face, I wanna crack him one in the jaw. I'm staying far away from this one.

Angela, you get 1,000,000 EXP. POINTS just for watching this movie!!!1!1

<3

I didn't see the movie but I saw him on tonight with Conan o Brien and it was truly hilarious, Conan looked embarrassed and you cannot blame him hehe.

Can't say I hate him enough to want to punch him in the face, but I definitely cringe at pretty much everything this guy does.

I can't wait to see this, Borat was funny, but this looks twice as good.  I remember see the preview when I saw Drag Me to Hell in theaters, and the entire audience was dying, including myself.

He went after my hero, Ron Paul. sigh...

Other than that...um...

No actually I don't know if I can say I "liked" this movie. I laughed terribly hard for much of it, from the shock value. But it was really too much from me. I feel dirty after having watched it. A lot of it was hilarious, but it crossed too many personal boundaries for me. Talking penis-hole was probably the creepiest thing ever.

Ramza

Watched Borat today and I was pretty much laughing all the time, except the part where Borat burned the Baywatch-book, I felt sad. So really hoping same will happen with Brüno. The whole Borat made me realize that Cohen is somekind of genius.

And Brüno on The Tonight Show week or two ago was hilarious also.

Not the first movie to do it, would you believe: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093240/

Haven't seen Bruno yet, but saw a new Borat clip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON_-ZnF5scs

This movie is great. I think it was much better than the Borat movie. Overall, I prefer Borat to Bruno, but only thanks to the Borat series, which was much better than the movie (which was OK, but kinda disappointing when compared to the series). In film form, Bruno clicked better with me. Cohen is a genius, and definitely one of the best comedians around today.

Really? From the resistance to politically correct meddling in games that I've felt from your posts, I didn't think you'd be the guy to be squeamish about stuff like this.

I oppose censorship, yes, but it makes me really uncomfortable to watch someone make direct fun of people who carry controversial beliefs. I can recall several Jerry Springer episodes where they got a couple of KKK clowns to spout their idiocy, and basically the show was about nothing more than making fun of KKK members, and no matter how much they might deserve it, I really cannot stand that kind of television.

I guess it's about vicarious shame more than anything.

I see what you're saying. But at the same time, I feel there's a discernible vision in Cohen's work that aims at something further than just "making fun of weirdos" (in fact, I think he's making fun of "normal" people and their automated values more than he does of "weirdos"), something that I feel is lacking completely in Springer. Personally, I wouldn't even put them in the same category, Cohen is far, far above both in style and substance.

That is such a Samantha thing to say.

I watched the home release the other day, and I do believe the film holds up much better on a second viewing.  Subtitles really help to make out Cohen's heavily-laced Austrian accent.  The bonus features are definitely worth watching, too; it's a whole hour of extended and all-new vignettes, and many of them are HILARIOUS.  It's almost like another third of the overall film.

The much talked about deleted sequence with La Toya Jackson was pretty good, but Brüno's conversation with one of the realtors really cracked me up.  It's the one where he asks how he would rate among the good-looking people in the neighborhood.  The realtor skirts around the question, uncomfortably stating that Brüno's a good looking man, but he's not in a position to judge.  Brüno gets offended, and says, "Well, I don't love the place.  In fact, I think it's SHIT."  The realtor pleasantly agrees, and what follows is this moment of awkward silence where Brüno's just staring at the guy, as if he waiting for him to rescind his comment, and tell him what he wants to hear.