It’s not ‘Borat’ but ‘Bruno’ has its moments

Much as I hesitate to use the words "stimulus" and "package" in relation to "Bruno," I could see an economic benefit to the movie's production.

Sacha Baron Cohen has taken a portion of the pile he made from "Borat" and plowed it into "Bruno," the purported story of a cartoonishly gay German fashionista encountering homophobia in America.

The production must have been an incredible boon to the "adult novelty" industry - in one scene, Bruno attacks a karate instructor with no fewer than three of these implements. One in each hand and one, well, someplace else.

"Bruno" opens with the title character and his lover (a pygmy, for some reason), having a go at each other with another toy mounted on some kind of exercise bike that's been turned into a pile driver. They also make use of champagne bottles and gerbils.

Suffice it to say, it's not the movie to see if you are on the verge of a digital prostate exam.

Nor is it the movie to see if you are the least bit squeamish about full-frontal male nudity and full-backal penetration - its gross-out content is much higher than the nude male wrestling of "Borat." Forewarned is forearmed.

But is it gross for the sake of being gross?

Cohen is coy about the motives for/meaning of his characters, but it seems likely that Cohen fancies Bruno as a homophobe's worst nightmare, an outrageously mincing, predatory and libidinous hyper-stereotype.

He then takes that nightmare and trots him out in front of presumed homophobes (hunters, wrestling fans, fundamentalists) and invites the audience to laugh at the discomfiture of small minds.

I think. Though I'm not sure. You can short-circuit a lot of Cohen's meta-jokes by trying to follow the complex wiring to its source.

On the other hand, not all of the jokes are complex, or smug. Some follow the pure, simple slapstick route to the belly laugh, and there are enough of those to please many Cohen fans.

Others will wish the movie were a little more original (it repeats documentary bits originated by Bill Maher and Morgan Spurlock) and had more discipline. "Borat" had a goofy but simple foreign-correspondent premise, but "Bruno" is all over the map, literally. He's supposed to be in L.A. to become a celebrity movie star, but he'll pop up in the Middle East long enough to confuse Hamas with hummus.

Also unfocused is Cohen's take on celebrity culture, though it has its moments. There's a priceless bit about stage-parents sacrificing their kids to Bruno's ultra-dangerous video project. And a bit about baby adoption and charity drives as self-serving, brand-building celebrity behavior has promise.

Cohen, though, loses his nerve. After poking fun at Sting and Bono, he brings them in for cameos, a sing-a-long "spoof" that feels more like boot-licking.

Sir Elton also appears, as if to give his Gay Icon blessing to Cohen's jokes about anal waxing, etc.

Cohen has fun at the expense of Paula Abdul and Harrison Ford, but otherwise seems to have exhausted the supply of celebrities to bamboozle, and of his own chutzpah.

So in "Bruno" he resorts to the a more time-honored (but equally profitable) establishment practice.

Sucking up.