Bruno

E:
Borat was such a huge breakout hit, Sasha Baron Cohen tries to strike gold twice here with the 2nd of 3 characters from his Da Ali G show. But it doesn't work so well here. A lot of people think it didn't work mainly because we already saw the schtick in Borat. Yeah, we did, but we could watch more of it if it weren't so mean-spirited this time around.
The biggest difference between the two films is this;
the humor in Borat was in finding how far people can be pushed, how much are they willing to accept from a foreigner when faced with cultural differences.
The attempt at humor in Bruno was in trying to push homosexuality in people's faces and seeing how much can they accept or how revolted they become. Baron Cohen simply turns up the gay until each person is uncomfortable whether they like it or not.
I'm no homophobe, but if a naked man crawled into my tent, I'd be pretty upset too.
The most humorous parts of the film center not on making people uncomfortable with homosexuality, but in pushing the boundaries of sensibility in other ways - the baby auditions for example. The lengths to which those parents are willing to go is funny, and Bruno didn't have to get naked to make it so.
Although, the focus group was pretty funny...

Year One

E:
For whatever reason, we added this to our Netflix queue. It was duuuumb. Jack Black and Michael Cera play a couple guys from caveman days apparently. They get kicked out of their tribe, then run into Cain and Abel, and whatever...
I don't think there was a single genuine laugh in the moobie.
I can't believe frickin Harold Ramis directed this. I mean... Caddyshack! Vacation! Groundhog Day! The guy wrote Animal House! Meatballs! He wrote frickin Ghostbusters!
And watching the special features, you'd think he had another classic on his hands.

Oh Harold...

Leave Her To Heaven

E:
A little back story as to how we ended up with this in our Netflix queue:
I've always been a big fan of the film noir genre (as I've mentioned before). This past summer, G & I watched Laura, a bona-fide film noir classic (great, great film - see my June 8 rebiew). After the film, we watched a documentary about the life of star Gene Tierney. Amongst the craziness of her CRAZY life, they mentioned this film Leave Her To Heaven. It got her an Oscar nomination (always ear catching), so we added it.
And good thing we did.
Another juicy old film in that classic Douglas Sirk melodrama mold. Directed by John Stahl, who also directed the original Magnificent Obsession in the 30's (not the Rock Hudson version), and Imitation of Life (G owns that one!), it's about two people who meet on a train and fall in love. Turns out she's not what he thinks she is, not in the least.
And that's all you're getting out of me as far as the plot.
Gene puts on a great show - turning from one person into another on a dime. Everyone else just has to stand back and watch her.
Definitely a fun one to watch.