My husband and I loved Borat and went to see Bruno yesterday - we enjoyed it, but it was nowhere as good as Borat. I think because it had such a narrow focus and the character of Bruno is no where near as “likable” as the character of Borat. I felt no sympathy at all for Bruno.
I would never ever in a MILLION years let a 16 year old see it. As Ebert says at the end of his review, the R rating is “very very very hard”. I’ve never been as shocked by an R rated movie. You see more of Bruno’s naked penis than you would see in a hardcore pornography, and that part is fairly low on the list of shocking moments. Whatevergirl, I would stick to your guns and not allow your son to see this. If he’s going to sneak out and see it with friends that is on him - this is not a morally uplifting movie with redeeming features that happens to be rated R. It’s also not as eye-opening and thought-provoking as Borat. I thought many parts were hilarious, but there is nothing edifying about it whatsoever.
For the record I’ve never seen American Pie or any of those teen sex comedies. I don’t know how Cohen’s movies compare. I generally watch artsy movies and solid dramas, but for some reason Cohen’s humor, like South Park’s appeals to me (I cannot STAND Family Guy though, go figure).
It’s about as crass, vulgar, and bereft of dignity as you can possibly get, but I loved the part with the stage parents and the “hummus/hamas”…“Your King Osama looks like a dirty wizard or homeless Santa Claus” - between that and the hunting trip scenes, I have come to believe that Cohen is actually insane, or at least has no normal, healthy sense of fear.
The Ron Paul part was the most disturbing part to me, even though it wasn’t the most graphic.
Two thumbs down here.