Thanks again to ContagiousNetwork, I attended the Australian premier screening of Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno. Bruno tells the story of an Austrian gay personality that travels to Los Angeles, willing to do anything for Hollywood stardom. He shoots a pilot TV show, experiments with his sexuality, turns to religion and like Madonna/Jolie, even gets himself an African child. This may sound like the plot of a hilarious movie, but Bruno fails to impress consistently throughout its 81min running time. One can't help but make comparisons between Bruno and Sacha's previous film, Borat. This doesn't serve Bruno too well. Whereas the foreign journalist Borat was naC/vely innocent, justifying his farcically hilarious behaviour, Bruno's Austrian celebrity is more sophisticated and doesn't sell his character's vial behaviour so well.   It seems Sacha was well aware of this, choosing crude sexually themed segments (including the talking penis and virtual felatio) to humour-shock the audience.

In a similar model to Borat, there were a number of segments pitting Bruno against unsuspecting victims. In Borat we had the rednecks at the Rodeo, in Bruno, we had the rednecks at an anti-gay fighting ring. Borat took driving lessons, Bruno took lessons in heterosexuality. Borat went up against the feminists, Bruno went up against middle east representatives. However, unlike Borat, most segments in this film felt set-up giving Bruno a more narrative scripted feel. This may have a lot to do with Bruno's successful predecessor, thus compromising Sacha's ability get away with his alter egos. Nevertheless, this detracts from this film, making it feel more like a crude comedy rather than the intended mockumentary. In fact, the funniest scenes were those that were clearly unscripted, such as when Bruno approaches Harrison Ford on the street and his run-in with Ron Paul.

Bruno does pack several laughs, even with the heavily set-up segments. Bruno telling the story of how he attained his African adopted baby in front of an African American audience was worthy of laughter. He had more humourous success when seeking the council of two Christian ministers to help him turn straight. The swingers party segment had the audience in tears, though I felt it was too obviously scripted to amuse. And that is the story of Bruno. It had just as many hit segments as it did misses. It didn't feel like a fully scripted comedy, yet failed to sell itself as a mockumentary. I don't know what the future holds for Sacha and his specialised niche movies. Whilst the relatively unknown Borat fooled many (so much so Sacha found himself defending a number of lawsuits arising from his successful deception), it seems everyone has since seen Sacha coming and his alter-egos have been exposed. Bruno packs a lot of different segments into its running time, with enough laughs to keep the audience entertained.

Rating: 2.5/5