Sacha Baron Cohen's BRUNO screens

The first review I've seen for Bruno has hit the web over at AICN, where spy Clounshoo, saw a unfinished cut of the film. Bruno is the second attempt from British funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen to fool the world into making themselves look like idiots but not surprisingly, the first fact brought up is "that Cohen just can€™t get away with what he could a few years ago. He€™s just too big now". As we all feared when the movie was first greenlit, the major celeb status of his Boratcharacter has put pretty much everyone on safe guard when bumping into dodgy, wacky characters and you would really have to be living on a deserted island not to know who Sacha Baron Cohen is these days, especially after his persona was further fuelled by his scene stealing role in Sweeney Todd. Sadly, the film suffers because...

you can practically tell some of the reactions they got were not of people aghast at the confusion that was going on, but rather that they knew exactly what was going on. As in, the jig is up. Cohen and the editors try to play it off, but the gut feeling that it isn€™t quite working is still there.

The movie, "doesn€™t seem real from the get-go, but it€™s played like it is". But apart from all those negatives, the reviewer couldn't stop laughing...

Bruno is funny as hell. It€™s very, very funny. It€™s crazier than anything you€™ve seen in a mainstream theatre, and yes, that includes Borat. I€™ve seen a lot of stuff in my life, and I€™m pretty jaded, but I saw some images and themes here I have really not seen before, and the surprising thing was how well it went over with the audience. I won€™t spoil any of it, but just know that you simply can€™t expect what Bruno delivers in some parts.

So a ultra confusing review (as it seems so extreme in it's opinion both negative and positive, and it's so hard to see how they can both mesh here) but encouragingly, an IMDB user has also left feedback from the same, or similar screening which puts the film in a good light...

The movie is endlessly debatable as to what was real and what was staged. I don't want to go into details (unless asked) but the movie was truly hysterical, much more shocking than Borat, and also had a disturbing quality about it (some of the people he pranks prove themselves to be utter lowlifes). I'll say one thing: Cohen is a truly courageous guy -- some of the situations he got into were causing me real anxiety. He literally risked his life more than once, risked getting socked in the face or other physical injury constantly and pissed off so many people. totally worth watching, will be curious to see what is add/omitted.

Bruno is set for a July 10th release in the U.K. and U.S.