Review: Bruno

Bruno (2009)
81 minutes
Rated – R
Directed by Larry Charles
Starring:  Sacha Baron Cohen

Grade:  B-

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Bruno, Bruno, Bruno where for art thou Bruno? Well he’s probably shoving his junk in someone’s face.  Bruno (Cohen) is the story of a man who is a famous Austrian TV star that has gotten banned from fashion week in Milan and then decides to go on a pilgrimage to Los Angeles to become a true celebrity. Along the way he interviews many different people in order to make a TV show and through this he discovers that in order to become famous in America he must become straight.  After a few failed attempts during counseling, he realizes he’s been in love with his assistant the whole time and somehow succeeds in becoming famous.

Now when you put the plot in words like that it sounds kind of endearing, but let me ensure you that this movie is anything but endearing. The film, at its core, is a message about our society. A message that says, look at how we treat homosexuals. Look at how we view them not as people, but as something less. The whole movie involves this character, Bruno, and has him interact with different members of society to show us how these individuals react to someone who is a homosexual.

One of the prime examples of this is one that most people have seen a bit of in the trailers. What I’m referring to is the scene where Bruno goes camping with three male hunters. The entire time that Bruno spends with them they make references to his sexual preference being wrong. The scene ends hilariously with Bruno trying to enter one of the hunters’ tents, naked, which results in the hunter flipping out and screaming vulgarities and then knocking hte camera down.

Another theme is the idea of being a celebrity. The movie pokes fun at the concept of wanting to become famous and the will to stop at nothing to receive that fame. There are two prime examples of this: the first being early on in the movie when Bruno lands an interview with Paula Abdul. Paula comes over to interview and there is no furniture in the room, so Bruno tells her to sit on a Mexican worker who is on all fours trying to look like something to sit on. Paula then proceeds to sit on the Mexican worker and starts to talk about her humanitarian work. I mean REALLY Paula…REALLY???  Is that how dumb you are, or is it a statement at how far you will go to maintain your celebrity persona?

The second example is when Bruno is interviewing mothers to see which baby is right for a commercial he’s making.  Almost all of the parents say yes to anything asked of the babies.  Bruno even asks the mother if her baby could lose ten pounds by the next week. Her response is quite unbelievable… she says “yeah he could do that if it got him the part”. I almost flew out of my seat! I couldn’t believe someone would actually do that to their own kid.

The movie succeeds in showing how a big portion of our society acts, with possibly the most memorable scene in the film. This is where a character of Straight Dave, a seemingly famous personality that is the host of some mixed martial arts association, gets called a derogative term by an audience member. Dave invites this person into the ring to fight, they begin to fight, and then all of a sudden they start making out with each other.  The crowd flips out and starts to throw things in the ring.  A chair is among the things that almost hit the two gay males making out.

A lot of people compare this movie to Borat, which is a fair comparison because they are similar mocumentary style movies with one lead character trying to achieve a goal and interviewing people along the way. This movie is not nearly as good as Borat because it fails to be as controversial. This may be because it only focuses on two subjects as opposed to the more broad messages that Borat addressed. Or possibly it’s because the actor, Sacha Baron Cohen is better known now and it’s harder for him to achieve the same results he did with Borat. I still liked this movie because it made me think about how society operates, and since it made me laugh very hard throughout. So check it out, and see how you react to homosexuality.

Box Office Results: Harry Potter flies, Bruno falls

Studio Estimates for July 17-19:

1.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – $79.5 million
2.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $17.7 million
3.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $13.8 million
4.  Bruno – $8.4 million
5.  The Hangover – $8.3 million

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Well well well… this weekend came as a bit of a shocker (slightly).  We all had the same Top 5 predictions, and therefore none of us predicted all of the movies correctly.  We had Public Enemies in the #5 slot and the sleeper hit of the summer, The Hangover, somehow managed to squeak past Public Enemies and The Proposal for the fifth spot.

What else?  Well, Bruno had a horrendous second weekend, grossing only $8.4 million (almost falling out of the Top 5).  Oh yeah, and then there was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that had the all-time highest midnight gross… yet failed to keep up the momentum through the weekend.  Harry Potter grossed (only?) $79.5 million, which was below all of our predictions.

We promise to do a better job next weekend, though that’s going to be tricky.  There are three new releases:  The family adventure, G-Force; the horror film, The Orphan; and the romantic comedy, The Ugly Truth.

The Weekly Top 5

1.  Why Twilight might ruin Comic-Con. Yes, this has to do with the freaks who call themselves Twilight fanatics.  They travel in hordes, they scream at a deafening high pitch, they pant at the sight of Rob Pattinson… and the majority of the world is crossing their fingers that this species will soon be extinct.

2.  Roger Ebert discusses Hollywood’s need to adapt toys and board games into films.

3.  Slash Film broke down the first five Harry Potter films and rated them on how critics and the public thought of them.  I’m happy that this proves that my favorite of the series, Prisoner of Azkaban, is the majority’s favorite as well.

4.  Here is a list of the worst-reviewed, highest grossing movies.  As you can expect, the recent surge of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a catalyst for this post.

5.  Top Ten Reasons to See Bruno (on David Letterman):

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And I just want to throw in a bonus movie poster to finish off The Weekly Top 5…

Hell Yes indeed.

Box Office Results: Bruno dances to #1 in the States

Studio Estimates for July 10-12:

1.  Bruno – $30.4 million
2.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $28.5  million
3.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $24.2 million
4.  Public Enemies – $14.1 million
5.  The Proposal – $10.5 million

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Although Bruno debuted at the top of the box office this weekend, it was slightly surprising that $30 million was all it made.  Borat made over $26 million its opening weekend in under 1,000 theaters.  Bruno made $30 million in approximately 2,700 theaters.  I’m not exactly sure why, though.  Bruno was more crude, but Borat received better reviews.  Is the public too homophobic to laugh at gay-satire jokes for 82 minutes?

Ice Age stretched past Transformers this weekend to claim the #2 spot in the box office with $28.5 million.  Public Enemies took in $14.1 million during its second weekend and The Proposal finished off the Top 5.  The other new release, I Love You Beth Cooper, ranked in at #7 with $5 million.

Check back next weekend when potentially the biggest movie of the summer hits the theaters (opening on Wednesday), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  All I have to see is if Transformers 2 can gross over $200 in its first five days, let’s see what Harry Potter can do.

Box Office Predictions (July 10-12)

So there were fireworks during the 4th of July weekend at the box office.  Well, aside from the colorful display of explosions that blanketed the night sky… in the movie world Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen squeaked by Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs for its second straight weekend at #1.  It was an extremely close call… so close that the studio estimates on Sunday night tallied a tie for the top spot.  Can a new release this weekend topple over the violent robots or the clumsy cartoons?

I’m sure you’re aware of the talked-about, highly controversial film called Bruno.  Yes, that Sacha Baron Cohen is at it again.  After the surprise hit that Borat was (maybe it wasn’t too big of a shocker how well it did at the box office, but who would’ve thought it would receive an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win?), his homosexual, journalist character comes out of the closet and is ready to take the world by storm.  Although it’s an entirely different character and storyline, Bruno will act as a sequel to Borat and because of Borat’s success, don’t be surprised if Bruno passes Transformers and Ice Age this weekend.

The other wide release that comes out this weekend is the teenage romantic-comedy, I Love You Beth Cooper.  Starring Hayden Panettiere, this looks like your typical slapstick rom-com where a nerd falls in love with the hot cheerleader.  Opening in less than 2,000 theaters, I really don’t see this film being much competition but because of the lacked volume of new films, it has a chance to squeak into the Top 5.

Here are our predictions:

My Predictions:

1.  Bruno – $45 million
2.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $27 million
3.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $25 million
4.  Public Enemies – $15 million
5.  The Proposal – $8 million

Phil’s Predictions:

1.  Bruno – $60 million
2.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $20 million
3.  I Love You, Beth Cooper – $15 million
4.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $15 million
5.  The Hangover – $6 million

Sheehan’s Predictions:

1.  Bruno – $57 million
2.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $36 million
3.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $32 million
4.  I Love You, Beth Cooper – $20 million
5.  Public Enemies – $19 million

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Chris was unable to submit his predictions due to a wedding in Rhode Island (not his).  Anyway, it’s unanimous that Bruno will top this weekend’s box office.  The range of our gross estimates is from $45 million – $60 million.  After that, things get quite interesting with our predictions.  Phil and Sheehan both believe that I Love You, Beth Cooper will have a major impact in the box office while I snubbed the film from the Top 5.  Surprisingly, Phil left out Public Enemies on his predictions during it’s second weekend.  And I still have The Proposal hanging on the #5 spot while Phil has The Hangover.

Check back on Monday for the box office results.

Box Office Results: *UPDATE* Transformers win weekend by a hair

Studio Results for July 3-5:

1.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $42.3 million
2.  Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – $41.7 million
3.  Public Enemies – $25.3 million
4.  The Proposal – $12.9 million
5.  The Hangover – $11.3 million

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The Independence Day weekend showdown went down to the wire.  It was as close as the Federer/Roddick match on Sunday turned out to be (tennis anyone?).  The results show Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen edged out Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs by a slim margin, $42.3 million to $41.7 million.  Meanwhile, Public Enemies sits comfortably in the #3 slot with about $26 million and The Proposal and The Hangover round up the Top 5.

It’s tough to see who had the most accurate predictions from the Panel since the studio estimates were indecisive.  In any occasion, the results seemed have caught us by surprise as the box office underachieved what we expected.  Combining Ice Age + Transformers, none of us predicted a gross estimate less than $100 million.

Check back on Friday for our new predictions when two new comedic releases hit a theater near you:  Bruno and I Love You Beth Cooper.  Personally, I cannot wait to watch Bruno.

Bruno landing on Eminem was staged

According to Entertainment Weekly, the incident between Sacha Baren Cohen’s character, Bruno, and Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday was all planned.  In case you don’t know what happened, Bruno was soaring above the audience towards the stage to announce the Best Actor award.  When he seemingly had technical difficulties, he plummeted down to the audience and conveniently landed on Eminem with his legs wrapped around the rapper’s head.  Eminem dropped every variable of the F-bomb, which was censored during the telecast, and then stormed out of the show angrily.

If my play-by-play didn’t suffice, check out the clip here.

It really was no surprise that the incident was staged.  That still doesn’t take away how hilarious the skit was.  And leaving you with those brief moments that all of that was actually real was worth it.  But still, the Bruno/Eminem incident wasn’t as awesome as The Lonely Island medley by LeAnn Rimes, Chris Isaak, and Forest Whitaker.  Watch the performance here.