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BRÜNOMovie Reviews
Comedy satire about a gay fashion-monger, the self-proclaimed 'voice of Austrian youth TV,' who interviews unsuspecting fashion icons and other haute couture hangers-on. Cast:Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten, Clifford Bañagale, Chibundu Orukwowu, Chigozie OrukwowuDirector:Larry CharlesRelease Date:July 10, 2009DVD Release:November 17, 2009From:UniversalRating:RLength:1 hr 21 min
Brüno played to good reviews that at the same time were mixed. • David Edelstein wrote in New York magazine, "Is 'Brüno' riotous? Yes, more so than 'Borat.' " • Bill Goodykoontz wrote in the Arizona Republic, "Funny while it lasts, and intolerance is a noble target, but it's too one-note to sustain." • And Richard Lacayo wrote in Time, "...how can you not love somebody who makes you laugh so hard?" More Reviews Below...
Jason Lynch, People: VERY GOOD(cg) "Brüno (who brings to mind an unhinged version of TV fashionista Steven Cojocaru) comes dangerously close to a Saturday Night Live caricature."(See all of Jason Lynch's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 193 words, 07/09/09
Richard Lacayo, Time: OUTSTANDING "Brüno may be a bumbler, but he holds all the cards -- he's the character who turns out to be lovable... how can you not love somebody who makes you laugh so hard?"(See all of Richard Lacayo's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,421 words, 07/10/09
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a toxic dart aimed at the spangly new heart of American hypocrisy: our fake-tolerant, fake-charitable, fake-liberated-yet-still madly-closeted fame culture."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 731 words, 07/10/09
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: WEAK(cg) "The problem with 'Bruno' is Bruno himself.... there simply isn't enough to the character to build an entire feature-length film around him."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 631 words, 07/02/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: VERY GOOD(cg) "...offers more shock value for your moviegoing dollar than any other movie this year.... the humor is sometimes hilarious and sometimes inane, the shock factor undeniable."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 482 words, 07/10/09
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (11 Reviews)
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "Baron Cohen remains a brilliant slapstick artist and a master of voices [but] 'Brüno' is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,273 words, 07/10/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "The needle on my internal Laugh Meter went haywire, bouncing among hilarity, appreciation, shock, admiration, disgust, disbelief and appalled incredulity."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 776 words, 07/09/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...easy to dismiss as salacious comedy on the cheap, and at times that's what it feels like. But Baron Cohen's instincts for outrage are spot on."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,259 words, 07/10/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: VERY GOOD(cg) "...exhausts a vein of shock humor Cohen has been strip mining since 'Da Ali G Show.' It's good for more big laughs this time, but it's time for him to move on."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 632 words, 07/07/09
James Adams, Toronto Globe & Mail: MODERATE(cg) "Some of the rude 'n' crude set-pieces are brilliant, but they can't disguise the fact that they derive more from TV's 'Candid Camera' than from the writing of Voltaire or Swift..."(See all of James Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 842 words, 07/10/09
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "No matter how well retold, a joke necessarily loses explosive force the second time around. But a great gag is a thing of beauty forever -- so, too, a comic performance."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,000 words, 07/08/09
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: POOR(cg) "...has no overreaching mission and no real purpose... almost entirely based on trapping people in a room with a merciless exaggeration of a stereotype..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 421 words, 07/09/09
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: WEAK(cg) "...the cringes outnumber the laughs... a disappointment from Sacha Baron Cohen, whose 'Borat' was one of the funniest movies of the decade."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 659 words, 07/10/09
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "...a crude, cringe-worthy, and intermittently funny affair that triggers the gag reflex. I sincerely can't tell you whether I was choking with laughter or keeping from choking."(See all of Carrie Rickey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 563 words, 07/10/09
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: MODERATE(cg) "...feels protracted. When the filmmakers' luck dries up, they resort to staged fish-in-a-barrel events that make the movie a more desperate, less surprising exercise."(See all of Wesley Morris's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 785 words, 07/10/09
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "I don't know how many more times Baron Cohen can go undercover, but it looks as if he'll never run out of bigotry, idiocy and hypocrisy to spoof."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 789 words, 07/10/09
Ted Fry, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...brings Sacha Baron Cohen's über-gay Austrian fashionista character to Hollywood in search of global celebrity.... finds lots of hilarity along the way."(See all of Ted Fry's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 468 words, 07/10/09
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: EXCELLENT(cg) "...crude, rude, over-the-top outrageous and very funny. Cohen has transferred yet another character from 'Da Ali G Show' to the big screen..."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 477 words, 07/10/09
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: GOOD(cg) "...crude both in form and content while at the same time capable of evoking explosions of shocked and, often, shamed laughter."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 634 words, 07/10/09
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Cohen's an outrageously gifted clown. But without coupling the yucks with something deeper, 'Brüno' ends up sad."(See all of Joe Williams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 313 words, 07/10/09
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun: WEAK(cg) "...isn't funny or purposeful enough.... movie fans and late-night comedy lovers may think to themselves, 'the director did this better with Bill Maher in 'Religulous.' ' "(See all of Michael Sragow's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 903 words, 07/10/09
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: WEAK(cg) "The motto for Brit comic Sacha Baron Cohen's turn as Brüno could be: Fool you once, shame on you; fool you twice, even more shame on you."(See all of Lisa Kennedy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 788 words, 07/10/09
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (6 Reviews)
J. Hoberman, Village Voice/LA Weekly: EXCELLENT "No matter how well retold, a joke necessarily loses explosive force the second time around. But a great gag is a thing of beauty forever -- so, too, a comic performance."(See all of J. Hoberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,000 words, 07/08/09
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...crude, profane, fearless in using ridicule to bite hypocrisy on the ass... defies you not to see yourself in its funhouse mirror. And then dares you to laugh it off."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 678 words, 07/10/09
A.S. Hamrah, Boston Phoenix: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...restores bad taste to its rightful place... Or maybe it exposes the fake outrage of a world that ignores the things by which it should be outraged."(See all of A.S. Hamrah's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 631 words, 07/09/09
Norman Wilner, Toronto Now: POOR(cg) "...has no overreaching mission and no real purpose... almost entirely based on trapping people in a room with a merciless exaggeration of a stereotype..."(See all of Norman Wilner's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 421 words, 07/09/09
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "Baron Cohen remains a brilliant slapstick artist and a master of voices [but] 'Brüno' is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,273 words, 07/10/09
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: POOR "...flat and foolish... propelled by a nagging puerility that will appeal only to those in the vortex of puberty, or to adults who have failed to progress beyond it."(See all of Anthony Lane's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,674 words, 07/13/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...easy to dismiss as salacious comedy on the cheap, and at times that's what it feels like. But Baron Cohen's instincts for outrage are spot on."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,259 words, 07/10/09
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: FAIR "...only intermittently funny and all too often the 'ambushes' of celebrities and civilians look staged. The movie is even a tad -- dare we say it? -- tedious."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 674 words, 06/29/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: VERY GOOD "...easy to dismiss as salacious comedy on the cheap, and at times that's what it feels like. But Baron Cohen's instincts for outrage are spot on."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,259 words, 07/10/09
A.O. Scott, New York Times: FAIR "Baron Cohen remains a brilliant slapstick artist and a master of voices [but] 'Brüno' is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes."(See all of A.O. Scott's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,273 words, 07/10/09
24.8 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Brüno's reviews are separated by an average 24.8 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Coverage:Brüno's reviews cover 96.3% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 31,942 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 710 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 12.1 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Brüno's reviews on average broke 12.1 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Brüno's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
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