Bru-No

Nobody had higher expectations of Bruno than me. After being dragged against my will at uni to see Borat, my pre-conceptions of Sacha Baron Cohen were shattered. Previously, I had presumed him to be crass, unintelligent and uninspired, but his second big screen outing proved otherwise (The Ali G movie is best left ignored). Cohen is one of the most intelligent comedians out there at the moment – his social observation and manipulations of different personalities takes far more skill than I think many of us appreciate.

So what the hell he was thinking when he wrote Bruno, I have no idea. There was not a shred of intelligence in the entire film; just a whole lot of debase humour and sex, and in my mind, a comedian who relies solely on cheap gags displays nothing more than a lack of genuine creativity and intellect. Yep, some people may find a dildo attached to the end of an exercise machine funny the first couple of times, but after its continued appearance in a succession of very similar set-ups, you start to wonder if Baron Cohen had simply run out of ideas.

Whether it was seeing Bruno refer to Bin Laden as a ‘dirty Santa Claus’, or overtly try and hit on to men at a heterosexual swingers party, it felt too forced. Comedy should seem natural and it should have a flow and a purpose; this possessed none of these qualities. Bruno appears to have been made for controversy and publicity motives alone and Baron Cohen’s antics at premieres around the world only serve to reflect that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all up for slapstick humour and a token comedy sex scene in a film if it suits. But after watching over ninety minutes of the same slapstick and comedy sex scene, it doesn’t seem so funny any more. You are left questioning the standing of the film industry when it deems it acceptable to commission such unconscionable fodder. I fear we are stuck with such inept movie debris cluttering our cinema screens for the near future however, because we all know that dollars are a far greater motive in the system than integrity ever will be.