Bruno outrageous, but not as fresh

One of the funnier scenes in “Bruno,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s new farcical mockumentry about a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion journalist, involves the title character interviewing “American Idol” judge Paula Abdul. Abdul arrives at a rented out mansion to find that Bruno, lacking any chairs or tables, has paid his Mexican landscapers to pose as human furniture.

Abdul, while clearly confused, not only sits on one of these people but does so while talking about her involvement with humanitarianism.

“Bruno,” like Cohen’s earlier film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” is at its best when exposing people’s everyday ignorance and hypocrisy.

Unfortunately, with its plot of Bruno traveling across the world seeking celebrity redemption, and its reliance on outrageous stunts designed to make people as uncomfortable as possible, the film sometimes feels too much like “Borat.” 

“Bruno” also has less to say than its predecessors. In “Borat,” we see ignorance of foreign cultures play itself out in different ways.

In “Bruno,” every joke is basically the same and we basically find out most people don’t like getting dildos waved in their face.

It’s not that the film’s more ridiculous scenes aren’t funny. Early in the film, Bruno creates a pilot for a celebrity interview show and screens it to a focus group.

The pilot includes Bruno doing a segment on celebrity babies involving recommendations to keep or abort, and it features a good 30 seconds of Bruno in all his uncensored glory. It’s hilarious.

But the funniest scenes in “Borat” involve getting people to unsuspectingly play along with Cohen’s game.

That must have been harder this time around, but it’s still disappointing to see Bruno’s seduction of former presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul simply end in Paul leaving. While in Lebanon, Bruno ends up interviewing a man affiliated with a local terrorist organization in an attempt to solve “the Middle East crisis.” The man just gets upset and tells Bruno to leave.

Fortunately, Cohen does bring out enough interesting responses from people to make this film worth seeing.

Later in the film, Bruno auditions baby models for a photo shoot with his adopted African child.

When Bruno asks the babies’ overbearing parents if they wouldn’t mind putting their children up on a cross or near heavy machinery, they just smile and nod.