Vassup!? I'm BRUNO!

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, folks: "Bruno" features an actor portraying a homosexual man engaging in simulated (but graphic) homosexual acts. There is also full frontal male nudity. Please don't go see this movie if, ten minutes in, you're just going to go and demand your money back because you've now been duly warned. I'll try to sum up the plot of Bruno as best I can, but to be honest there isn't much of a plot to begin with, just a series of stunts and sketches. Bruno is the Austrian host of a popular fashion program who winds up getting blacklisted. His career in shambles, he decides to come to America and "become famous". The rest of the movie follows his attempts to achieve celebrity status. He adopts an african baby and gives it the traditional african name "O.J.", he puts together a television pilot that one of the focus group members it was screened for decribed as "worse than cancer", and also tries his hand at creating a celebrity sex tape involving who he thinks is Ru Paul, but in actuality, turns out to be former presidential hopeful, Ron Paul. Bruno soon decides that it's his homosexuality that's preventing him from becoming a celebrity, and (for the remaining duration of the movie) sets out to become straight. He goes to military bootcamp, he meets with a pastor who specializes in converting gays to heterosexuality, and he meets with some swingers (but can't force himself to participate with the women). One of the funniest scenes in the movie involves Bruno going to a karate class to learn how to defend himself against homosexual advances. The scene steadily escalates as Bruno forces the hapless karate instructor to defend himself against ever-increasing dildo attacks. Sacha Baron Cohen is perhaps best known as "Borat", one of three characters he developed on his HBO program, "The Ali G Show" (Bruno, and of course Ali G being the other two). Where Borat was a simple-minded, sweetly innocent character, Bruno is an abrasive, fame-driven celebritard. The targets of Bruno's humor are much broader and all inclusive (much the way South Park tends to go after both sides of the spectrum). Baron Cohen has no problems pushing the boundaries, even at the expense of alienating his new Borat fans. In that way, he's very much his generation's Andy Kaufman. If Borat was his Latka Gravas, maybe Bruno is his Tony Clifton. In any event, there is a multi-dimensional talent at work here, and I think I may have to watch this movie again just to catch all the little jokes thrown in subtly, unnoticed in the shadows of the gigantic visual gags.
***1/2 out of *****