Bruno

I wasn't sure about Bruno going into it. The trailer wasn't that funny and things seemed way too set up. But I went into the movie expecting that, and so I wasn't disappointed. I laughed a lot, and I'm a big fan of cringe humor, and this was cringe humor at its finest. No, actually, Borat was cringe humor at its finest. That movie was more consistently-funny than Bruno.

Much of Bruno seems set-up, or like one person is in on the joke and provokes the responses from others. But even without that "real" feel, it's still funny.

I did have a major problem with it though. When Bruno appeared on Da Ali G Show I don't remember the fact that he was gay being the "big joke". Instead, he made fun of the interview subjects, often vapid celebrities and people from the fashion world. We get a little of that here - a great bit with a baby-model casting call and horrific stage parents willing to let their babies pose as all kinds of things, plus these public relations twin bimbos discussing the next big cause - but most of the comedy is focused on Bruno's homosexuality.

So me, in all of my Bleeding Heart Liberal glory, sits there and wants to cry with the reaction Bruno gets from people in (shocker!) Alabama and Arkansas. It's kind of horrible if you think about how this kind of intolerance exists. It's a fact of life, and he's exposing it, but I didn't find that part funny. It's more sad really.

But setting aside the social commentary (which is probably not the point), it's definitely a funny movie. I just wish the joke was on the other people and not Bruno's homosexuality. I don't think being gay is shocking or funny, but what do I know.

Oh yeah, and this movie had plenty of male nudity. So thumbs-up for that.