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Sacha Baron Cohen is back with another of his Ali G characters.

Three years ago American movie going audiences were rocked by a crazy man from Kazakhstan.  Borat was a character created and portrayed by the very brave and funny British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who traveled the country as a the antisemitic misogynist making a film about America for his homeland.  What he really accomplished was capturing footage of many unsightly corners of our nation full of racism and idiocy.  The result - pure hilarity.  People could not get enough of this character, despite his appearance years earlier on Da Ali G Show in the UK, and still imitate his iconic phrases.  Since filmed versions of two of his characters, Borat and Ali G, were huge successes it was natural that another film would be produced focusing on the flamboyant Austrian fashionista Brüno.  The film, simply titled Brüno, packed theaters and had plenty of laughs but failed to recapture the same magic as his naive Eastern European equal.

After being a success in Austria with his fashion talk show Brüno decides that he wants to increase his fame globally.  He travels to Milan for Fashion Week where he is blacklisted and kicked out?  Where else is there to go to create fame than Los Angeles?  Here he gets an agent and tries everything he can think of to become famous from creating an interview show, to trying to make a sex tape, to charity work and even getting a baby from Africa.  Each of his travels in funny consequences at the expense of those involved who know nothing of what he is truly doing. 

While Brüno does not have the same magic Borat does, it still delivers plenty of laughs and even more uncomfortable moments.  Levels of comfort are stretched as Cohen tries to push the envelope in every possible way.  There are sex toy enhanced exercise bikes, mimed man-on-man oral pleasure and a swinging, and talking, penis to surely offend someone.  Most of the offended are those in the smaller towns, but it still worked.  Overall this film gives a look at the ignorance of many against homosexuality, some very hostile ignorance that really opens your eyes to the widespread close mindedness.

At certain times in the film it’s easy to see that while Cohen has created a little more of an overall story with Brüno, with a look into his love/family life, he has also dialed up his bravery in more dangerous stunts.  Cohen and company set up events where he drops him pants in a closed room with (then) Presidential candidate Ron Paul, goes hunting with a bunch of homophobic rednecks with loaded weapons and even meeting with an man who has terrorist ties in a middle eastern refugee camp.  That last one even made it necessary for Cohen’s security to be beefed up after they caught wind of the film. 

There are plenty of deleted/alternate and extended scenes for your bonus viewing pleasure, like the much talked about axed scene with La Toya Jackson, and an interview with Lloyd Robinson (Brüno’s agent in the film).  The best thing about the Blu-Ray disc is the option to watch the film with the enhanced video commentary with Cohen and director Larry Charles.  The feature will occasionally pop-up a box in the lower corner of the screen as showing the two and sometimes they will pause the film to tell a story about the scene currently unfolding.  This adds over twenty minutes to the overall runtime but gives a nice glimpse into the hectic life these people went through to make the film, and you her stories of running from the cops and set-ups gone wrong. 

Another neat little feature is available to check out for those out there with iPhones.  It’s a free app called Pocket Blu put out by Universal and will be able to be used on some of their new Blu-Ray titles.  As long as you have a Blu player with wifi, like a Playstation 3, when you open the app with the disc in it will let you access certain bonus scenes and clips on your phone to stream or download onto the device.  There is also a remote control interface that will work with your player, it really helped out because my PS3 controller’s battery went dead while watching the movie.  This app could really add some cool features in the future and I look forward to more use on other Universal titles (Fox has a similar app in the works). 

Even though Brüno does not have all the magic of his Kazakh brother it is still a good for some great laughs, as well as a bit of a saddening look at how parts of the country still view gays.  At least worth a rent if you have yet to see the film. 

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