When Sacha Baron Cohen starred in the 2006 surprise hit ‘Borat,’ audiences howled with laughter. Why? Because ‘Borat’ was crude, shocking, politically incorrect, and funny as hell. The humor came from the fact that while Borat said and did horrible things he was a likeable character. His flaws came from his background and way of living in a foreign country, but he himself was passionate, optimistic, curious, and cheerful. Such is not the case with ‘Bruno’, Cohen’s second onscreen character. Bruno is crude, shocking, and politically incorrect, but not funny as hell. The humor here doesn’t come from the character, as Bruno has very little character of his own. Instead it comes from shocking situations and dialogue, which unless harnessed by a likeable protagonist or clever situation, is not funny; it’s just shocking.

Bruno is an Austrian fashion show host who lives his life in an extremely eccentric fashion. The main focus of his existence is that he’s gay, and is not only proud of it, but loves to flaunt it everywhere he goes. From the clothes he wears (often very phallic) to the way he talks and walks (over the top feminine), he wants to be sure everyone knows that he’s a homosexual. And that’s about it. There’s not much humor on top of that. If you don’t like gay jokes or sexual humor, then you’re pretty much going to be out of luck. In some of the jokes, you could practically hear the audience finish the punch line before the movie did. One scene shows Bruno getting a piggy back ride as his assistant says “Your hairbrush is poking my back.” To which I heard three other people, including myself, actually complete the joke with the movie “That’s not my hairbrush.”

There is a little more story though: Bruno wants to be famous, and he doesn’t really care how. He just wants to be world renowned. The film centers around the quirky and awkward ways that he goes about getting the world’s attention. Such actions include adopting an African baby, producing a talk show which mostly shows his penis wagging around, and trying to declare peace in the Middle East (PS: it doesn’t work). Accompanying him on his journey is his Austrian assistant named Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), who is quite in love with Bruno. Unfortunately Bruno is not in love with him and will often cast him aside. Still persistent though, Lutz hopes that he can change Bruno’s heart while Bruno hopes he can change the world.

Much of Cohen’s and director Larry Charles humor relies on their convincing you that this is a sort of humorous guerilla style film making, that is to say, it takes place in real life events. I personally have a hard time believing that. Obviously the main characters are actors but I think they want to convince us that everyone else in the movie was not part of any script and that they did not know they would be on camera. On top of many of the people giving overcompensating performances (his Hollywood agent is especially bad), the scenes just don’t play out like real life scenes would. Granted there are a few scenes that do have me scratching my head as to its authenticity (which is more than ‘Borat’ had), but I can still tell most of these extras are actors and not just everyday people.

I won’t deny there are some very funny scenes in Bruno, most of them centered around the third act where he tries to stop being gay. There is also a very funny scene involving Ron Paul which I’ll admit is either a real life scenario or a testament to what a great actor and good sport Ron Paul is. Even some of the gay jokes work; there’s one scene during one of his shows where his Penis actually dances, looks up at the camera and shouts his name. Scenes like that are so over the top you can’t help but laugh at its absurdity. Unfortunately the film tries too hard to get those moments. After the success of ‘Borat’ the film tries to push the envelope even further as to what is shocking as well as funny. ‘Bruno’ certainly has the shock down, but the humor is often stale and very predictable. This results in a few very funny scenes between an onslaught of disgusting ones.

So who’ll like it? People who liked the shock value in ‘Borat’ more than they did the actual joke telling will probably feel at home with ‘Bruno.’

Who won’t like it? People looking for either real guerilla style film making or a film equal to the quality of ‘Borat.’ They will not be totally disappointed, but their expectations are not likely to be filled.

My thoughts? I expected more from the writers. These are talented people with a lot of energy, character, and originality. To see something as passé as the humor here is certainly a letdown. Still I did laugh quite a few times and there were some moments I will certainly remember. But for someone who did not want to do a sequel to ‘Borat,’ Cohen seems to have given us one. The premise of a mockumentary about a foreigner flying to America and making everyone uncomfortable has already been done by these people, so why do it again unless you can add something better? I would like to see more out of these people than a quick attempt to recapture the humor and spontaneity of ‘Borat.’ I’m sure these people have fresh and funny ideas, why not explore them more instead of just recycling the ‘Borat’ formula? To quote the films marketing campaign, it is SO 2006.