Meet Brüno (Sasha Baron Cohen, of the hit movie Borat and HBO’s Da Ali G Show), a celebrity-loving, gay fashionista, who calls himself the “voice of Austrian youth TV”, gets blacklisted from the fashion show in Milan. Depressed but nevertheless hopeful, he goes to America and embarks on a never-ending quest for “celebrity”. In the process Brüno ridicules society’s fascination with celebrity culture, and exposes redneck and homophobic prejudices.

THE VIDEO

Brüno is presented in 1.85:1/1080p on a 50GB disc and encoded with VC-1. Image quality is good/decent overall; detail and definition is fine, while colors are clean in brightly lit exteriors/interiors. A majority of scenes were shot using natural light, so the presence of grain is quite heavy in many scenes. Black levels are okay, nothing more.

THE AUDIO

Brüno is presented in a decent 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio . Surrounds are active frequently, music and dialogue are crisp and clear, equally well reproduced across the front and rear speakers.

French and Portuguese 5.1 DTS-HD dub tracks are also included, as well as a Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital option. Optional subtitles include English, French, English SDH, Portuguese, and Spanish.

THE EXTRAS

Spiel? What's that, you ask? It's German for Play. That's right, the menu is presented entirely in German (and translated into English). On a side note, a few German words are intentionally mispelled/invented (Brüno speak).

When you put in the disc, you have the option to view the film with enhanced commentary or without it.

Enhanced Movie Commentary by Sasha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles: A small video frame appears in the corner from time to time as you watch the film, and sometimes they pause the film to go into more detail about a scene they’re describing. Both participants share interesting and outrageous true stories from the making of the film; it’s a great track that's packed with funny anecdotes.

Megatolle Extras! breaks down into four segments:

Alternative Szenen (Alternate Scenes) (HD, VC-1, 5:42) shows two alternate scenes, the first with Pete Rose interviewed at the house sitting on one of the gardeners (Paula Abdul in the final film), and Bruno interviewing political figures former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (who says he has been looking forward to speaking with Bruno for “quite some time”) and American Values President Gary Bauer (they chose the Ron Paul interview for the final film).

Exterminated Szenen (11 Deleted Scenes) (HD, VC-1, 40:45) is a goldmine! Simply put, these additional scenes are pretty funny. Strange, but the scene from the trailer with Bruno at a Sears is not included! (The last deleted scene is a Blu-ray exclusive.)

Großer Szenen (8 Extended Scenes) (HD, VC-1, 22:39) is exactly that. There’s more of Bruno interviewing the parents for the children casting, more from the Swingers party, Bruno jabbering on and on in Lloyd Robinson’s office, Bruno interacting with the focus group people, Lloyd meets Bruno in the recording studio, and more with Bruno at the National Guard (a Blu-ray exclusive extended scene). These scenes can be viewed individually or using the “play all” option.

Ein Interviewen mit Lloyd Robinson (HD, 5:32) finds the agent looking back on filming his scenes and commenting on what happened.

Also part of this sub-menu is My Scenes which lets viewers bookmark favorite scenes and create their own clips.

Vas Ist Neu?: Check out the latest trailers, exclusive content and more, powered by BD-Live.

There’s also a News Ticker appearing at the top right of the home screen that you can turn on/off at the bottom of the menu selection.

FINAL THOUGHT

If you want the laughs, then definitely say “Ja” to Brüno.