Bruno And The New American (In) Tolerance

Imagine a naked Austrian man trying to bust into your tent with condoms. Imagine expecting a cage match and getting men making out with each other. Picture yourself, working at a hotel and finding two men chained together in bondage gear. How would you react?

I believe that some people would respond in some of ways that are featured in the film, including shock, anger, extreme discomfort, but that doesn't necessarily make them anti-gay. These are people being presented with the extreme end of gay spectrum, and responding in ways even "tolerant people" could respond. For example when a naked Bruno tries to sneak into a hunter's tent, I can understand why the Hunter tells Bruno to "get the fuck out of here." I'm not going to lie, if Bruno himself was trying to bust into my tent, I would respond the same.

Yet in watching the film, let's realize the people who are respectful to Bruno. After all, the hunters in the film also are tolerant enough to spend the entire day with Bruno and all his antics. Perhaps the America that Bruno found while making this movie was different than the American he found in 2005 while making "Borat." An indicator of this is the fact that the film had more actors than the previous film and felt more staged than ever before. Maybe we're becoming more tolerant as a country, and that's problematic for Sacha Baron Cohen, and good news for us.

Bruno: Not Funny Enough

At no point in "Bruno" did I think I was watching Sacha Baron Cohen play a gay nazi fashionista Austrian named Bruno. Rather I felt like was watching an actual person, not an actor playing one, that's how convincing his performance was. While I do think it's too early to start announcing nominations, I hope that someone shows Cohen some love for his fearless (literally) performance. It takes a huge balls to do the things he does in the movie, and I think he risk taking should be commended.

Beyond the performance Cohen, I found the movie to be decent; funny but not sidesplitting, and most of all incredibly shocking. More than Borat, I felt that Cohen deliberately intended to shock his audience first, and then make us laugh. A scene involving an open casting call for young babies induced many "that's fucked up yo" responses from the audience but no chuckles. It was almost if the filmmakers only wanted to show you just how out of control the quest for fame in our country has become.

This film felt far more fictional than Borat, and I think it was supposed to. There were more characters then the previous film, and the story was also more dependent on them than before, Borat after all was about Pamela Anderson and the climax had him stuffing her in a bag (a joke which never gets old). Yet, Cohen succesfully modified his shtick from Borat and created a new beast, one that didn't lampoon the problems in our society, it skewered them and roasted them over the American lack of tolerance, I just wish it could have been funnier.

Forget about Obama, check out Sarkozy thinking "Yo Obama, welcome to Europe."

Who Cares About The Green Lantern?

Bradley Cooper, Ryan Wilson, Justin Timberlake are the three finalists to play Green Lantern. Honestly, I don't know why this is a big deal because most people don't know shit about the Green Lantern. Hell, I consider myself I fanboy and even I don't know much about him. All this news about the Green Lantern makes we wonder two things: who/what is the Green Lantern and why is a movie being made about him?

After hours of research I can now safe that The Green Lantern refers to not one, but many intergalactic policemen who use one power ring on their finger to fight the forces of evil that exist throughout the universe. Uhhh, ok, when it comes to hand based superheroes, I'll take the badass dude with the claws that come out of his hands, not the Limited Too obsessed ring based hero.

As for the movie, you'd think that Warner Brothers would be more interested in making a movie about Superman. His logo is one of the most recognizable in the Universe, he has a rich history of actors playing him, and most importantly his powers are very cinematic (well more cinematic than a magic ring). And while "Superman Returns" turned the hero into a brooding whiny sucka MC, a new movie that featured Superman punching dudes through building or tearing giant city threatening robots to shreds would definitely require a viewing.

A dude with a magic ring, I'll pass.

Haven't You Always Wanted To Be In the Foot Clan?

One of the stranger parts of living in LA is that you get recruited to join the Foot Clan, which if I'm not mistaken is a New York based Crime syndicate. Of course this recruitment "casting call" is clearly a sign that the crime lord known as "Shredder" has extended his spiky grip across the country and I shudder to think what his next plan is. Here's hoping that there are some teenagers in New York playing with baby turtles and then that the turtles fall into the sewer where they will come in contact with some green shit and then meet a Kung Fu Master who has recently become an oversized rat.

Here's the info.

When: Saturday, July 18, 2009 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Where: Hollywood & Highland
6801 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
*At Grand Staircase

Who: Judges to include actor and martial arts expert Ernie Reyes, Jr., Jason Morgan from the American Taekwondo Association, and 2011 TMNT movie producers Scott Mednick and Galen Walker.

Audition: 30-Second Martial Arts Demo (Single Person Only)

No metal, sharp or bladed weapons of any kind allowed

Photo and updated resume with contact information

Fourteen years or older (under 18 must have adult permission for audition)

New District 9 Trailer IS AMAZING

Damn, just like that this film rockets to one of my most anticipated of August. Expect a full blog post about this film tomorrow.

The Rocketeer is a CLASSIC!

I was five years old when this flick came out and I remember it like it  was the peanut butter and jelly sandwhich I ate yesterday (the switch the grape preserve and crunchy peanut butter was wildly fulfilling). What do I remember from this classic. Ahhhhhh, son, 

I remember the initial flight of the rocket. 

I recall Jennifer Connelly looking hot in a Rita Hayworth Shawshank way.  

How about John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) as Howard Hughes. 

Or Timothy Dalton as an Hollywood star who is really a Nazi, including switching to a crazy german accent out of nowhere in the end.

Another moment that is clearer than my vision when I put on my rex bex when playing basketball is the part when our hero takes the bubblegum of the rocket and gives it to the cunning villian (who promptly blows up son!)

Sometimes I feel for kids these days, a film like this provides a sense of wonder, a sense of magic that now is only delivered with gigantic robots. As a child, the rocket Pack seemed attainable, something I could have maybe even created on my own. But a giant talking car that turned into a highly armed killing machine, I didn't even consider wanting that. I just wanted, wait, no I still want, my rocket pack.