BRUNO
Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Year: 2009
Rated: R
Film Length: 1 hour, 22 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1080p Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French DTS Surround 5.1, Spanish DTS Surround 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Release Date: November 17, 2009
The Movie
Bruno is a film of the episodic misadventures of Sacha Baron Cohen’s flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter from Da Ali G Show. Bruno consists of a number of scenes in which some famous people and some ordinary people are ambushed by Bruno’s outrageous statements and behavior with their priceless reactions preserved on film. These brief episodes are tied together loosely by a narrative thread in which Bruno is disgraced and seeks redemption in the film.
For the benefit of those who have never heard of Da Ali G Show, it is an interview show that was broadcast on HBO which had Sacha Baron Cohen interviewing hapless subjects in one of his 3 personas: Ali G is a functionally illiterate hip hop star, Borat is a feckless TV reporter from Kazakhstan, and Bruno is the aforementioned Austrian fashion reporter. Cohen developed these characters for several years in comedic vignettes on BBC-4 in the United Kingdom before production of the HBO series. Cohen’s characters, and the reactions of unsuspecting persons who are exposed to these outrageous characters, have created some great satire as the victims unwittingly conceal, or more often reveal, their biases and prejudices regarding race, culture, and sexual orientation.
I was mildly disappointed by Bruno, even though I am an ardent fan of Cohen and Da Ali G Show. My disappointment stems from my expectations, since I have seen Bruno engage in certain vignettes on Da Ali G Show that were funnier than some of the interviews in this film. In Cohen’s defense, I concede it must be increasingly difficult to dupe famous, and ordinary, people with these characters since Ali G, Borat, and Bruno have achieved greater notoriety. It is apparent that some of the interview sequences were staged with the cooperation of the participants, but there are still some interviews that seem genuine and spontaneous, and those sequences yield some of the funniest sequences in the film. The scenes in which the subjects are knowing participants are still amusing, since it is interesting to see these famous people jam with Bruno, but those episodes lack the spontaneity of some of the more outrageous sequences.
Video
The movie is in 1080p in its original 1.85:1 anamorphic aspect ratio. Portions of Bruno were filmed with high definition cameras resulting in remarkable clarity of image, whereas other parts appear to have been photographed with less than state of the art equipment. The film has a deliberate documentary look that you expect with hand held cameras. In spite of this stylistic choice, the video is surprisingly sharp. Some mosquito noise and compression artifacts are visible occasionally but this is the exception rather than the norm.
Audio
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks make use of all speakers during the scenes with music and crowd noises. For the most part, the audio is through the front channels. This is almost certainly an artistic choice as well to create the impression of a documentary film.
Special Features
The menu options on this DVD are a special feature in themselves since each menu option is in German textuntil highlighted by the remote icon, which changes the menu option into English text. These menu options are superimposed over various pin-up style photos of Bruno posing erotically. The special features include all of the following:
Alternative Scenes (5:43): These scenes include Pete Rose confronted with the same scenario as Paula Abdul was in the film.
Deleted Scenes (35:12): These scenes include La Toya Jackson’s appearance which was cut from the film following the death of Michael Jackson.
Extended Scenes (18:42): These are expanded versions of several scenes that were shortened in the film.
An Interview With Lloyd Robinson (5:32): Bruno’s hapless Hollywood agent provides a brief interview and insists that he was duped by Cohen’s alter ego until he saw a billboard for the film.
Enhanced Commentary (1:48:04): Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles provide a lively and interesting commentary about the making of the film. The commentary is actually 26 minutes longer than the film because Cohen and Charles have that much to say. The film pauses at various points to accommodate the commentary by Cohen and Charles.
Trailers: These trailers appear automatically before the main menu after inserting your disc into its player, but are not offered as a separate option in the DVD menu. The trailers are for American Pie: Book of Love Unrated, Funny People, UniversalHiDef.com, Public Enemies, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, and Smokin’ Aces 2 Unrated.
Conclusion
I think that Cohen raised the bar so high with Borat that it was impossible for Bruno to top that film for sheer entertainment and shock value. On the other hand, some critics thought this was funnier than Borat. The commentary by Cohen and his director is very interesting and makes this commentary much better than average. I really enjoyed the inclusion of nearly 1 hour of additional scenes in the special features, and I thought that some of those scenes were so good that they should have stayed in the film. Viewers who want to see everything should be advised that the Blu-Ray edition has an additional 10 minutes of deleted scenes that are not included on this standard DVD. If you are prudish about language or sex, then this film is not for you. Bruno tests the boundaries of good taste in ways that you may have never seen before. If you are a fan of Ali G or Borat, then chances are that you are not prudish anyway, and Bruno is likely to be more or less what you hope and expect it to be.
