Bruno.

Usually I come up with a pun or something for a title of a review, but for this one I just couldn’t think of anything.

Not only does Bruno (the film and character) push comedy to the limit, it/he pushes it over the edge, down a cliff, onto a bomb and blows it up. I mean we all know the situations are technically fixed, or positioned in a way to get a reaction from the audience…but its the reaction that counts.

Ie the talk show host and crew are in on the joke, but the audience isn’t. It’s their reaction that is funny. Unlike The Hangover (in which everyone was in on it) the audience is the straight man. Comedy works if there is someone who didn’t see it coming, and is reacting to it. OR, if the comedy is pushed so far that we have to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it. In Bruno, you get both.

I have honestly never laughed so hard that my head hurt! The trailers did a very poor job of preparing me for what was ahead. I know nothing of the Bruno character from Ali G, and I knew nothing about Borat when I saw that, but Bruno is probably the gayest man in the universe. The character himself is fake.

If you took the 10 gayest men and combined them into one, he wouldn’t be as gay as Bruno is. He’s like the cartoon Hercules (with the strength of ten, ordinary men – Bruno has the gayness of 10 super gay men).

This is funny because it is playing on what we consider to be gay. His sexual fantasies are so bizarre that NO ONE would really do them ALL! Which brings up a good point…IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH SEEING “GAY” ACTS – DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!

But Bruno is really playing with people’s interpretation of gay. He pushes it to the extreme and people buy it! At one point he is screening a copy of his pilot episode “Celebrities Maxed Out” (I think that was the title), and this is the funniest scene in the movie because the show is soooooooooooo absurd it is beyond anything I can even mention here to compare it to. And the group reviewing it are stunned and appalled at it…but if I was in that group I would’ve realized this is fake, and lauged!

And that’s how the whole movie went.

5/5 – great comedy for those who can take it.

--J-KraKen--[>