Sacha Baron Cohen & Gustaf Hammarsten
Bruno

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Extraordinarily raunchy, occasionally funny, "Bruno" takes everything "Borat" did so well three years ago and pushes it further, swapping one primary target (American anti-Semitism) for another (American homophobia).

But comic nerve has little to do with sheer excess.

The fashionista at the center of "Bruno" is a pretty tedious fellow, and there's a calculated stridency to the material in Sacha Baron Cohen's new guerrilla lark, directed (as was "Borat") by Larry Charles. By the end, you may feel like Eminem at the recent MTV Movie Awards, getting a face full of Austrian kugelsack. For 82 minutes.

The setup's distressingly similar to "Borat."

Bruno plus sidekick (this time it's his assistant, Lutz, played by the badly underused Gustaf Hammarsten) come to America seeking fame and fortune after being kicked off the European fashion-show circuit. As before, the South -- particularly Texas and Alabama -- seethes with cretinous, venal rednecks uncomfortable with the stranger in their midst.

In Dallas, before a (real? fake?) TV talk-show studio audience, Bruno shows off his adopted African baby to the astonishment of the African-American crowd. Cohen's wielding a double-edged sword here, or trying to: He's messing with everyone's heads while poking fun at adoptions made famous by Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Still, it's a long way to go for a queasy, attenuated chuckle.

The secret ingredient in "Borat" was how quickly Cohen and director Charles managed to get in and out of trouble.

The problem with "Bruno" comes in mistaking blatancy for comic gold. I laughed a few times: An awkward guest at a hetero swingers' party, Bruno -- trying to become straight -- observes a couple having sex, inches away from the action. "You're doing a great job," he says to the man, trying to distract him. Later, though, when Bruno ends up in a room with a fake-breasted dominatrix brandishing a whip, you think: She's not in on the joke? Is the joke funny enough?

Part of what made "Borat" work was its opposition to the prevailing cultural winds.

By 2006, those who had enough of the Bush administration were good and ready for scenes -- fantastically wily -- such as Borat leading a rodeo crowd in an increasingly menacing exhortation of America-first xenophobia. Also, "Borat" took time setting up its title character properly. "Bruno" doesn't; Cohen takes our interest for granted.

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.") Amid all the shtick involving anal bleachings, imagined fellatio with Milli Vanilli and other pastimes, the funniest thing in "Bruno," ironically, is the least explicit. Working as an extra on the TV series "Medium," Bruno disrupts take after take with his blissful mediocrity. Cohen's hilarious here.

Elsewhere, the bear-baiting candid-camera antics suggest this talented crew has gone to the same well once too often.

 

"Bruno" Movie Trailer

 

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Bruno MPAA rating: R (for pervasive strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity and language).

Running time: 1:22.

Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen (Bruno); Gustaf Hammarsten (Lutz); plus appearances by Paula Abdul, Ron Paul, Bono, Chris Martin, Elton John, Slash, Snoop Dogg and Sting.

Directed by Larry Charles; written by Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer and Jeff Schaffer;

Produced by Cohen, Jay Roach, Dan Mazer and Monica Levinson.

A Universal Pictures release.

 

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