Yesterday I had the terrible misfortune of watching Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy mocumentary, Bruno.  To call it a comedy is actually a terrible insult to anyone who has ever produced anything funny. This movie was a boring, unfunny piece of crap with no surprises and very few laughs. I am a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's past work so I really wanted to like this movie, but I have to be honest with myself: I didn't.

Take the segment in which Bruno interviews Ron Paul. They sit down to start their interview, there is a fake mechanical failure, so Bruno leads Paul into an adjacent bedroom where he plans to seduce him. Paul is immediately uncomfortable, sits down, and doesn't respond to Bruno. Bruno drops his pants, so Paul storms out having barely said a word (aside from "Get the hell out of here" to gain access to the door). The total length of time is something like 45 seconds, with Bruno eliciting nothing of comedic value at all.

Most of the interviews and set-up situations are like that, with the victims being immediately suspicious and shutting down, leaving Cohen with very little material to work with. This is the inherent flaw in the Bruno character: he simply makes everybody uncomfortable right off the bat, not because he's gay but because he's damn annoying and because he's obviously up to no good.  Cohen does not pull off the Bruno character nearly as convincingly as he did with Borat and Ali G, and people can usually see through it.

One scene which was heavily relied upon in promotion of the film is a scene in which Bruno appears on a talk show with a predominantly black audience, and he baits them by introducing his African baby and spitting out mildly racist taunts and showing photos of the baby with Bruno in a hot tub full of naked men.  I chuckled a couple of times during this scene, but there was little of comedic value because this audience saw right through his act right from the start and would not allowed itself to be lead by Bruno. Half the audience walks out, and most of the rest simply shut down because they aren't buying it.  Again, this scene could have been a lot funnier if there had been any trust or believability in Bruno to create tension. But Bruno walked in, the audience was immediately revolted, and the scene was over. Pretty much.

There are a handful of funny moments in this film. But if you have seen the trailers and tv commericals, then you have probably seen them. And if you think those funny moments in the commercials are only a small part of the scene, you're wrong. Those secnes are all really short and you've already seen the punchline. The remainder of the film is taken up by lame filler about Bruno's experiences with his male assistant and his musings about his dream of being famous. This filler is neither endearing nor funny, and not at all interesting.

There's not much I can recommend about this movie, other than to avoid seeing it in theaters and wait for it to come out on dvd. Then steal the dvd because there's no way you should even pay for a rental.  This movie was that bad.