Bruno
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 10, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
12
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie is 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. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
You'll hoot and holler as it strips down its targets and sticks it to them, hardcore. Baron Cohen is the pure, untamed id of movie comedy. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A no-holds-barred comedy permitting several holds I had not dreamed of. The needle on my internal Laugh Meter went haywire, bouncing among hilarity, appreciation, shock, admiration, disgust, disbelief and appalled incredulity. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineJason Buchanan
With Bruno, Baron Cohen essentially turns a carnival mirror on society, and some people simply aren't going to like what they see. This is satire at its most confrontational and incisive. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Cohen no longer has freshness and novelty on his side, but he’s retained the power to shock, offend, provoke, unsettle, and most importantly, entertain a jaded, desensitized public. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Funny as it is, Brüno could not be as shockingly uproarious as "Borat." 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. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Probably more gut-bustingly funny than anything else out there right now. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's hard to deny that Brüno succeeds in being both outrageous and outrageously funny, and it's hard to damn a comedy, regardless of its faults, for those qualities. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The real genius, if that is what it is, behind Sacha Baron Cohen's crude, shocking and explosively funny Brüno is the fact that the filmmakers actually found enough gullible human targets. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Brüno offers more shock value for your moviegoing dollar than any other movie this year. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Undeniably funny, outrageous and boundary-pushing, this further documentation of Sacha Baron Cohen's sheer nerve will draw an abundant share of "Borat" fans. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Is Brüno riotous? Yes, more so than "Borat," in which Baron Cohen's targets were ducks in a barrel and largely undeserving of ridicule. He doesn't aim much higher here, but his tricks are more inventive. Read full review
70
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Packed with filthy jokes, insane sight gags, and body parts used in decidedly uncommon ways, Brüno is hands-down the dirtiest R-rated movie you'll see this year. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
Like a wayward love child of Lenny Bruce and the Three Stooges, Brüno is an idiot savant of penetration -- breaking through borders, boundaries and anything that resembles good taste on his way to whipping up as much cultural anarchy as he can. I would guess Brüno is holding on to an R rating for this sublimely spicy soufflé by the skin of his, well, let's just not say. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Crude both in form and content while at the same time capable of evoking explosions of shocked and, often, shamed laughter. Read full review
65
NPRBob Mondello
Director Larry Charles has made Bruno a tighter, better-looking film than "Borat," which is not necessarily a good thing on those occasions when you suspect it of scripting rather than just observing. Read full review
60
EmpireDamon Wise
A patchy, hit-and-miss comedy with a few outrageous highs and a lot of just-okay padding, Brüno suggests that Sacha Baron Cohen's in-your-face fool routine sadly isn't working any more. Read full review
60
TimeRichard Corliss
The problem with shock comedy is that it works in its purest form only the first time. Where do you go after you've gone too far? No artist can get heads to swivel and stomachs to turn indefinitely. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Extraordinarily raunchy, occasionally funny. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Brüno is what "Borat’" was too well-done to be: a publicity stunt about publicity stunts. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
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. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James Adams
Brüno is likely to be the funniest thing you'll see on a screen this summer. Which is precisely its problem: it's a thing , not a movie – if, that is, you believe a movie should be more than an accumulation of prankish set-pieces flimsily strung over 80 skimpy minutes. Read full review
50
SlateDana Stevens
The humor of Brüno is arguably crueler and more misanthropic than "Borat's." Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Parts of it are brilliant; some of it feels tired and overplayed. Cohen has come up with some marvelous satirical motifs; elsewhere, he's just showing how far he'll go to get a laugh. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
There are some solid, outrageous laughs here--most of them involving anal sex--but don't expect a second lightning strike. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
There's good bad taste and then there's just plain bad bad, which is what describes most of Brüno. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Bruno is 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. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
In spite of Mr. Baron Cohen and Mr. Charles’s high-level skills and keen low-comic instincts, Brüno is a lazy piece of work that panders more than it provokes. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The low points in this movie aren't just catastrophic: they're bewildering. Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Seems fatally out of tune, with every staged encounter falling as flat as the protagonist's hot-ironed bob. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The film may have only the best of intentions, but it tries way too hard and ends up being shallow, superficial, and only sporadically funny. Read full review
30
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Forget satire; this guy doesn't want to scorch the earth anymore. He just wants to swing his dick. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The bad outweighs the good and the cringes outnumber the laughs in Brüno, a disappointment from Sacha Baron Cohen, whose "Borat" was one of the funniest movies of the decade. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Here’s the bad news: Brüno is no "Borat." Here’s the worse news: Brüno crosses the line, like a besotted sprinter, from hilariously to genuinely awful. Read full review
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