Bruno: Not as good as you would think.

Sacha Baron Cohen takes another satirical stab at the world, this time as Bruno, the uber-max fashion show host who is blacklisted after an unfortunate "velcro suit" incident in Milan. To regain his fame and celebrity status, he travels to America and tries everything (and I do mean everything) to get back on top.

I'm torn as to how I feel about Bruno for on the one hand, Cohen is once again able to show the insensitive and bigoted nature of people. One of the more shocking examples of this was the preacher who, while trying to turn Bruno straight, went on a diatribe on why even though women were (and I'm paraphrasing here) "a pain," man needed to be around them. Cohen also took a shot at American societies' obsession with celebrity. In order to promote himself and his new son O.J. (whom he traded an ipod to get), Bruno sets up a photo shoot and puts out a call for other child models to appear in the shoot. To sit back and watch the things the parents of these children are willing to put their 3 to 4 year olds through all in the name of getting the gig (playing with phosphorus and possibly undergoing liposuction) is both hilarious and horrifying.

However there were things which made this film less than equal to its predecessor Borat. Bruno, as a character, was missing the gleeful ignorance that Borat possessed and was not nearly as likeable. Borat's journey was one of self - discovery. As he traveled around the "U, S and A" he was able to grow as a character and, by the end of the film, had changed into someone better than the prejudiced fool he was in the beginning. Bruno, on the other hand, stayed the same throughout. The static nature of his character was due, in large part, to the vapid love story between himself and his assistant's assistant Lutz. As a result we never got to see Bruno grow as a character, he just tried to be "butch" and go straight in order to get himself into some awkward confrontations with people. Speaking of which, it seemed as though Cohen made Bruno more confrontational with the situations he got himself in as opposed to the way they geniuely flowed in Borat. I will admit that there were times in the film when I turned away from the screen beacuse I thought Cohen was going to get physically assaulted by his intended victim. Those types of situations can be funny once in a while but to base an entire movie around that setup makes for uncomfortable moments when the joke fails to connect, and that happened more than once in this film.

Bruno shows that Sacha Baron Cohen still knows how to make us laugh, but the joke is starting to run a little thin.

Grade: C+

Borat: It's very nice!

Before the madness that will be Bruno hits movie theaters, the world was introduced to another creation of Sacha Baron Cohen named Borat. A journalist with a peculiar slant on things in America.

Intrepid Kazahkstani journalist Borat travels to America to report on the greatest country in the world. But that endeavor is soon pushed aside when he decides to go on another quest, to find and marry Pamela Anderson.

Forget the fact that there are so many golden comedic moments during Borat that an audience found it hard to catch its collective breath (the destructive trip to the antique store and the driving lesson he undertook are shining examples), the thing they should come away with after watching the movie is a new perspective not only on themselves but of foreign opinions on Americans in general. Borat's journey across the "U.S. and A" shed light on some vicious bigotry and hatred still present in the supposedly enlightened modern American society, bigotry and hatred that seemed just as bad (if not worse) than what was going on in his backwater home of Kazahkstan. Sure there were the over the top comedic moments such as when he found an interesting way to use the facilities while he was dining with some Southerners and his naked wrestling match with his manager was enough to make any person cringe but there was a method to Cohen's madness. The viewer who simply chuckled and didn't realize they were laughing at their own ignorance and bigotry missed the point to the film. Not only this, but Cohen also took a swing at Americans obsession with celebrity and beauty. After seeing Pamela Anderson in full Baywatch mode while in an American hotel, he became obsessed and that desire to take her led to the cross country trek. Once he finally met her however, he came to realize that those things that are truly beautiful are usually the things right in front of you, not former Playmates with plastic parts. His incisive look at America made Borat a great success indeed.

Grade: B