One thing that can be said with no reservation about Cohen is he knows how to push people's buttons. The level of that seen within Borat was high enough already, but with Brüno that level has been raised exponentially. As I said, the movie feels entirely set-up to shock the viewer, and that's where pretty much all the laughs can be found. But the problem is with the exception of a few scenes (one in particular in the first ten minutes will serve as a tolerance test for the audience - basically if you can sit through that scene, you'll get through the rest of the movie), these relentless attempts at shocking the audience wears thin by about half way through. I'm not going to go as far as to say it's desensitizing (because once you've gotten over one shocking occurrence, another one crops up to drop your jaw to the floor again), but it just gets boring once the formula has been revealed and you realize there's nothing else to it.
Even in Brüno "safer" moments that are suited for general audience to witness in a trailer, Brüno doesn't work. And the reason for that, as is the case with so many comedies, is all of those parts are given away within the trailer. Not only does that make them stand out like a sore thumb when you see them in context, but it also takes away from the laughs. A big reason why the film is able to surprise you is because most of the stuff is too outrageous and adult orientated to be suitable for general public viewing.
There's a very clear duo of targets Cohen is targeting with his latest motion picture - homophobia (and people's general perception of homosexuality) and the celebrity culture. The latter is the vein that runs through the movie as far as plot goes (if the wafer thin thing we get presented with could be described as a plot), and plenty of jabs are taken at that sort of culture we've just come to expect and accept nowadays (name checks and celebrity reputation insults are always on Brüno's tongue). In dealing with homosexuality, it's really quite irritating. There was a great opportunity for Cohen to go down different routes and confront different relation issues, making it intelligent as Borat was in many ways. But just when the idea is brought up and you think it's going take things in an interesting direction, the movie just falls back on it's extended gay joke of, "look at the foreign guy with tight pants and his genitalia hanging out." This just proves that the movie is more about being in-your-face and shocking than being inventive and intelligent.
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