Sacha Baron Cohen’s third film treatment of one of his characters from the excellent Ali G Show comes with some anticipation but also quite a bit of baggage. Following the smash success of Borat in 2006, Baron Cohen’s movements in character as Bruno have been closely monitored in the media over the last twelve months. Most memorably, Baron Cohen’s gatecrashing of Milan Fashion Week made international headlines as did several other stunts he pulled for the cameras in front of (usually) unwitting participants.

What elevated Borat beyond a simple set of shocking and funny sketches into an intelligent political comedy was the fact that the character was innocent and extremely likeable despite committing many shocking and offensive acts. He was an ingénue, full of good intentions, spirit and pride in his country, though he was clueless and perhaps a little stupid… but because of this we forgave him and instantly bestowed carte blanche upon him to do whatever he liked. And we laughed. A lot.

Bruno is a more worldly character but extremely self-absorbed and only interested in furthering his own fame – this is deliberate but it makes the character harder to relate to and like. He is an educated and socially aware gay man from a wealthy country and frankly, he should know better than to behave the way he does in about 90% of this film and as a result, we the audience are just not with him. Most of the stunts were simplistic and lacked the potent mixture of political and social commentary and total depravity that gave Borat its comedic power. Really, anyone can pay someone to bleach their asshole in character and film them having a phone conversation.

Story-wise, the film is a fairly obvious retread of the Borat scenario – basically a crazed European trying to make good in the US of A. There follows a very loose narrative stringing together a dozen or so set pieces where Bruno hoodwinks his participants into the gags. There are a couple of quite clever sequences that do hint at how much sharper the film could’ve been (in particular the scene featuring the two religious ‘gay converters’) but ultimately the film is witless, simplistic and one-dimensional.

Baron Cohen had a chance to make some serious social and political commentary about homophobia in the USA which would have immeasurably elevated the comedy of his wild stunts along the way. Instead he has created a sort of a gay 21st century version of Candid Camera mixed with a Porky’s film. While this may sound quite appealing in many ways, the fact that it could have been exactly this but so much more at the same time is what makes the film such a disappointment. Perhaps the 5-second long scene of Harrison Ford’s reaction to being accosted by Bruno sums up the film perfectly – ‘Fuck Off’.

It’s clear that Baron Cohen possesses wit and talent as well as a massive commitment to his comedy – these are all good things but Bruno is evidence that the same joke has now worn painfully thin. For 90 minutes of mindless snickering, this film will do the job but those with expectations any higher than that – and fans of Borat and Ali G – will almost certainly be very disappointed.