Brüno

Watched this movie on DVD. Here, Sacha Baron Cohen's efforts to shock did not seem quite so successful as with 2006's "Borat", maybe because, despite the different material, it followed the same playbook too closely. Plus, people are trying so hard to be tolerant and gay-friendly these days, even in America's remotest backwaters. In order to shock, you really have to be offensive, and thereby go past the point of comedy.

Still, there is one priceless scene, where Brüno adopts an African baby and brings him on a local, Jerry-Springeresque TV show, in front of a largely African-American audience completely prepared for any sort of sleaze, and nevertheless manages, with ruthless skill, to hit - Every. Single. Hot. Button. But there, it's the endless possibilities offered by the collision of race, homosexuality, celebrity, and nationality that provides the fodder, not just the gay schtick.

Here are a few interesting trivia points offered by imdb:

An interview with La Toya Jackson was hastily cut from the theatrical release due after the unexpected death of Michael Jackson at age 50. The segment, seen among the DVD's deleted scenes, contains a joke which refers to Michael as someone Bruno wants to meet with, rendering the line anachronistic with Michael's death.

The sequence where Bruno enrolled at the Alabama National Guard, filmed at the Alabama Military Academy in Fort McClellan, Anniston, went undetected until a young cadet who recognized him from Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006), notified elder officers who were unfamiliar with the actor.

Ayman Abu Aita, the man depicted as a terrorist, has expressed his intent to sue Sacha Baron Cohen for depicting him as a terrorist falsely, lying to him about the interview telling him he's interested in the Palestinian cause while he's a Christian charity worker who spent eight years in Israeli jails.

Sacha Baron Cohen and his crew reportedly illegally accessed a fashion show in Milan using fake IDs. After he entered the stage, the lights were dimmed and Baron Cohen was escorted out of the fashion show by security.