Brüno Blu-ray Disc Review

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By brenden ⋅ November 22, 2009 ⋅

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BRÜNO (2009, Blu-ray released November 17, 2009 - MSRP $39.98)

I really enjoyed comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat. I had the pleasure of viewing it in Poland while on tour with my band at the time. An amazing experience. Watching his follow up film, Brüno from the comfort of my living room theatre was certainly not anywhere near as magical. It was, however, just as cringe-inducing and hilarious!

I don’t really like Brüno as a film. I guess what I’m trying to say is that the story isn’t really great. It’s a simplistic framework constructed to allow improvisational moments with and pranks on unsuspecting victims. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s just really transparent. In fact, Cohen’s character in this film plays out an arc identical to the character in his previous film. That’s right, Brüno is in most ways a simple echo of Borat: Fish-out-of-water gets in over his head, loses everything before finding himself while conducting some hilarious interviews along the way. The only real difference this time around is that the main character is gay and exposes rampant fear of homosexuals in America, as opposed to being Kazakhstani and exposing rampant fear of foreigners in America. It’s unfortunate that Borat had to come first and that Brüno follows it so closely because it could most likely hold its own without comparison. As it stands, one can’t help but compare the two. Brüno is in almost every sense a remake or re-envisioning of Borat. But a really, really funny one. So, it can’t be all bad, right?

You don’t enter into watching a film like this for the story. You want the pranks. You want to see how far Cohen will push his gags. Will push people. And he pushes hard here. I laughed almost all the way through the film. Then I put on the deleted/additional/extended scenes and laughed for another hour. Brüno delivers exactly what you want from it. He takes on celebrities, politicians, religion and a whole host of really scary, back-water folk who hate gays and love their guns. However you feel about the humour, you’ve got to give Cohen props for having a huge pair. I’m amazed that he escaped the filming of Brüno with all of his parts intact.

What I didn’t realize was how close he came to imprisonment, physical injury and death during the making of the film. I sat through the Blu-ray discs video commentary in awe. It’s like a survivor’s document. Cohen and director Larry Charles walk you through every aspect of making the film, occasionally stopping the movie to explain something in greater detail or just to take a moment to break off on a tangent and tell another story. To be honest, I found this feature far more gripping than the film itself! I literally had trouble turning it off. I recommend checking it out. It will give you an all new insight and appreciation for the film. Despite the vast collection of hilarious outtakes, BD Live stuff and Pocket Blu mobile features on the disc, the video commentary is the special feature to give your time to. Astounding!

I usually like to touch on the technical quality of a BD before the end of a review. But there’s just not much to discuss here. The video presentation on the Brüno disc comes from a lot of different sources. It’s highly inconsistent but totally appropriate for the film. There’s enough detail to remind you that you’re watching a high-def presentation but not enough quality for the Blu-ray connoisseur. The DTS HD Master Audio suffers much the same fate, being at the mercy of the source material. But seriously, who cares. Content is king here and you won’t be disappointed with Brüno on Blu-ray. The disc makes the most of what it has to work with.

Previously on The Blu-ray Blog: [VIDEO] Bruno Blu-ray Deleted Scene - La Toya won’t imitate Michael Jackson