While Sacha Baron Cohen made his name with the mockumentaries Borat and Bruno, he’s been taking solid acting gigs in ‘real’ films over recent years such as Sweeney Todd and most recently Hugo. He’s also set to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and will play the villain in Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables, but not before he unleashes another wacky character onto the world with The Dictator.

Paramount has today released the first trailer for the film via Moviefone, and this time Cohen in joined by Anna Faris, Sir Ben Kingsley, Megan Fox, John C. Reilly and J.B. Smoove.

In the film Sacha Baron Cohen plays a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. As the dictator wanders the city, he meets the owner of an organic food store. She turns around his dictatorial thinking, and there’s a little romance in it as well.

Cohen has re-teamed with Borat and Bruno director Larry Charles, and The Dictator will be released May 11, 2012.

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DreamWorks Animation has released the teaser trailer for Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg previously said Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, and Melman the Giraffe would get back to New York eventually (probably in the fourth film) but in the meantime “their journey takes them through Europe where they find the perfect cover: a traveling circus, which they reinvent – Madagascar style.”

Watch the trailer below:

The film once again features the vocal talents of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric The Entertainer and Andy Richter. Frances McDormand is a new addition and voices a calculating and goal-oriented animal control officer who leads her team to capture the animals. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted will be released on June 8, 2012 and is directed by Eric Darnell (Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa).

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For a movie that looks radiant – including the 3D – and handled with precision from behind the lens, Hugo is shockingly a numbing experience.

Chances are you will not feel a thing until the last third of the film. This is also the point where the purpose of the story is finally revealed. It’s the first time where yours truly had to wrestle with if a movie did in fact need a purpose or sturdy plot to be entertaining. Hopefully this will be answered in just a few paragraphs; or in this case, rambles.

Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is a young orphan that has a knack for fixing anything mechanical. The setting of this tale is 1930s Paris, at a massive train station in the heart of the city. Hugo spends most of his days adjusting all the clocks throughout the station – a job his drunken Uncle (Ray Winstone) should be doing. When he’s not adjusting clockwork mechanisms, he ends up fiddling with an over-sized mechanical doll with human-like features. Trying to get the automaton to function is proving quite the task for someone who usually figures out everything fairly quickly. He believes that this robot has a message from his late father (Jude Law in cameo mode), but learns that its history runs deeper than he once thought.

When he’s not working on the little metal man, he carefully maneuvers around the station, avoiding the shrewd station inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his k-9 sidekick, Maximilian, who takes an unusual pride in catching shoplifting orphans. Hugo is also a watcher (no pun); as he peers through secret crevices taking in the daily people who work at small shops on the station grounds; his favorite being the quiet toy store operator, Georges Melies (Ben Kingsley). Through his visual stalking, he coincidentally becomes friends with Georges’ daughter, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz). During their time together, the two explore the riddle behind Hugo’s wind-up robot; the interest Georges has, or doesn’t have, in it; and the magic of filmmaking. And naturally, the two do get into some mischief.

While Chloe Grace Moretz dazzles again, the young male lead is no slouch either. Their chemistry and emotional discharge is a pleasure to watch considering their young age. And with people like Ben Kingsley and the great Christopher Lee showing up in supporting roles, the veteran actors are able to anchor this down as the more-or-less wise mentors. Even Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno) shows that he’s more than just a shock and awe actor. His timely and subtle comedy is right on for the family-friendly atmosphere. And if you listen closely, it does have some mature edge to it.

Having all these fine performances keeps your attention. Plus director Martin Scorsese creates an atmosphere that ushers in old-school and modern-day filmmaking aesthetic that will have your eyes constantly exploring. It’s definitely a holiday movie yet its purpose remains hidden for some time. Mainly because the script changes its mind on where the focus is going to be and the transition is anything but smooth.

And that’s why it’s amazing that this film can’t project any emotion off the screen to the audience. Aside from an educational montage that showcases the pioneer techniques of filmmaking, which is beautifully orchestrated, the direction or message this piece is trying to depict remains as mysterious as the mechanical robot angle. But it’s not the good kind of mystery. It’s the I-really-don’t-care-anymore feeling that will consume your mind. Very strange not to have any interest in the story yet you do not mind admiring the physical characteristics. Guess that’s similar to a conversation with a stripper…or watching Avatar again.

This flick may be worth the price just to see how aptly 3D can be used in conjunction with jaw-dropping set designs. Other than that, this would have been more moving and engaging if this instituted one of those old-school movie mechanics and ran silent for its near two-hour duration.

Overall, Hugo is quite frankly, attractively boring. The storytelling is lacking but the visual aspects and filmmaking mechanics can, and do, pick up the slack. All the production people deserve the utmost recognition, but this feature as a whole, just feels underwhelming, despite some exceptional performances from the entire cast.
RATING: 3 out of 5

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GK Films has released a new trailer for Martin Scorsese’s 3D family adventure Hugo. It’s a bit odd saying the words “Martin Scorsese” and “3D” in the same sentence, but with “family adventure” thrown in the mix, it causes one to scratch his or her head, wondering if it’s just a big prank.

Alas, it is as real as it gets, and from the looks of the new trailer, it looks surprisingly intriguing. But who can complain with a cast consisting of Jude Law, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lee, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass), and Asa Butterfield (The Boy in The Striped Pajamas).

Check out the trailer below:

‘Hugo’ tells the story of an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. With the help of an eccentric girl, he searches for the answer to a mystery linking the father he recently lost, the ill-tempered toy shop owner living below him and a heart shaped lock, seemingly without a key. Based on Brian Selznick’s award winning and imaginative New York Times bestseller, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” this magical tale is Scorsese’s first film shot in 3D.

Now it’s no doubt that Hugo is a dramatic departure from the usual violent and gritty films Scorsese’s become iconic for, such as GoodFellas and Shutter Island. But, with that being said, the trailer manages to capture a mysterious and emotionally engaging adventure with adult elements, contrary to the first trailer’s whimsical “kiddie” feeling.

It may be hard to wrap your head around, but it looks like Scorsese is managing quite well in new territory, which promises us a feel good mystery/adventure film that is geared for all ages. The only quip I have, which is obvious, is Scorsese’s attempt at using 3D elements. It just doesn’t feel like this is the type of film that warrants the need for the technology (then again most modern films don’t) and, again, it just doesn’t feel right for the director. Scepticisms are no doubt abundant, but we’ll know soon enough if Scorsese can pull it off when the film releases.

Hugo is released on 2D/3D screens across the US from November 23rd and the UK from December 2nd.

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty has been itching to be remade for some time. Now, it’s looking like the film, which originally hit theaters in 1947 and bookshelves five years before that, might actually make its return. Pajiba reports that 20th Century Fox has offered Sacha Baron Cohen the lead role. No director is yet attached to the project, nor is it officially in production, but things are looking up.

Walter Mitty has run through a series of actors and filmmakers for the past two decades. Jim Carrey, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Owen Wilson, Mike Myers, and Mark Waters (among others), have all been tied to the project at one point or another.

The film is about a “mild-mannered” man who has five heroic daydreams that are inspired by his mundane surroundings. In the original story, he flies a hydroplane during a storm, performs an impossible surgery, plays an assassin in a courtroom, pilots a plane on a crazy bombing run, and faces a firing squad. With the right filmmaker on board, this could make for a great movie. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a CGI-fest like Bedtime Stories. More on the film as we hear it.

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Eight years after Men in Black 2, the folks at Sony Pictures have decided to revisit their successful franchise and plans have been set in motion for Men in Black 3. Will Smith is reportedly interested in reprising his role as Agent J, but there’s been no word of Tommy Lee Jones’ potential involvement.

Now Bloody Disgusting reports that Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno) and Jemaine Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) are in talks for a lead role in the sequel – a character named “Yaz.” With Josh Brolin also rumored to join the cast, the talent surrounding this project is slowly building up as it inches closer to production.

Written by Tropic Thunder screenwriter Etan Cohen, the story supposedly features Agent J going back in time to meet the young version of Agent K. Josh Brolin is reportedly suiting up as the younger incarnation of Tommy Lee Jones’ straight-faced agent. No actors have officially signed on to the project yet (and no director has been hired, either), so it’ll be quite some time before we see this film up on the big screen. No word yet on the return of the wise-cracking alien pug Frank.

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Sacha Baron Cohen is back with his own brand of character comedy in Brüno, coming out July 10th.

The long and the short of this film is quite simple: If you dug Borat, you’re probably going to see Brüno and enjoy it as well. If Sacha Baron Cohen’s comedy plays on your own prejudices, or if you have a weak constitution for sex and broad gay comedy, best to stay away from this one.

Part of the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy experience is seeing this movie soon after its release date in a theater full of like-minded fans. It’s not that the jokes themselves aren’t worthy of laughs, but fans of television in the 50s, 60s and early 70s know that Charley Douglass would argue that you’ll laugh more if there are others laughing around you. Plus, no one likes the one guy gaffawing all by himself.

Part of the group-mentality sentiment is my personal opinion. Reporting on film blogs during Brüno’s production meant that several of the sequences were revealed to me beforehand. It’s not that the film’s plot is important, but some of the more shocking situations in this situational comedy are best left discovered on screen. Sometimes I’d find myself chuckling along with the folks beside me during a reveal I was expecting to come along. Because of that, the review below will be intentionally vague about the punchlines.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno character first appeared on the Paramount Comedy Channel in 1998, soon followed by segments on the UK version of Da Ali G show (Brüno appears in the first episode of the American version and makes sporadic appearances mocking fashion and homosexuality through Season 2, episode 6). It’s safe to assume, with Borat and Ali G both retired after their films, that this will be Brüno’s farewell appearance.

The film picks up where the TV series left off, with Brüno still working for his fictional show Funkyzeit mit Brüno (Funkytime with Brüno), though after an all-Velcro suit incident goes exactly as wrong as it appears in the trailer, he is fired and dumped by his pygmy-sized lover (more on that later).

Without the popularity of his show, Brüno is left with only his assistant’s assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) who follows the wayward star to Hollywood where he plans to become famous.

Why Brüno as a film fails to surpass the laughs generated by Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan has a lot to do with the nature of the character and the medium. As far as the construction of Brüno as a film, a lot feels familiar: we start with the character in his safe zone, reporting on fashion in Brüno and with the hilarious fake Kazakhstan village in Borat. Then, with a simple thesis about what America has to offer, said character is off with one managing cohort and finds himself in various vignettes as he attempts to reach a certain goal. In Borat, that goal was fulfilled with the attempted kidnapping of Pamela Anderson, in Brüno, his goal is to be famous.

It’s a similar structure on all accounts, right down to a sequence comparable to Borat’s naked wrestling where Lutz and Brüno find themselves in a compromising situation that eventually becomes a public one.

However, what makes Brüno’s jokes so much more dubious than Borat’s is the tonal shift between character comedy and the film’s subject matter. In Borat, it was the same thing: xenophobia. American’s don’t react well to foreigners, but we’ve at least gotten to the point where we tolerate them and their bizarre behavior. They are the “other,” they are not us.( Borat’s dinner party wasn’t ruined until he literally brought a bag of his own poo down from the bathroom.) In Brüno, the film isn’t about being famous, and it isn’t about homophobia. At least not as completely as one would hope.

Very early on in the film, Brüno and his tiny, man/boy sex toy have a sequence of gay sex sight gags that are hilarious. Though I’ve seen a champagne bottle inserted in a woman’s hindquarters before (thanks to some previous, pornography-related jobs), seeing it poured from a man still has the shock value. The sequence feels slightly out of place, like most of the scenes in both Brüno and Borat that only include two actors an no unsuspecting victims, but the sequence exists for a purpose: to make them so flamboyantly strange that they become “The Other.”

This is the Catch-22 of gay humor. Homophobia is subtle in most real-life situations. Much like it is preached in the South Park episode “Death Camp of Tolerance,” the basic tenant of tolerance is that you can go on not liking homosexuality, you just have to not like it in your head (and for God’s sake don’t legislate based on your beliefs). You don’t embrace it, you tolerate it. It’s when you find especially prejudiced people and shove a flamboyant gay guy in a room with them, or when you force middle-aged women to watch a video of a talking penis that you are guaranteed to get humorous and uncomfortable reactions, breaking through the threshold of polite tolerance. This requires a character so gay that he’s a caricature bordering on stereotype, and that’s Brüno.

(In no way do I think this movie is offensive to homosexuals. If anything, they will see the stereotype much clearer and realize what’s going on faster.)

When Brüno is riffing on being famous, the film plays fresh, even if it’s treading a little to close to Borat’s play on xenophobic Americans. You can tell a casting agent in the early part of the film is giving Brüno a break because he’s foreign and has a camera crew with him. It’s when Brüno discovers that “straight” people like John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey are famous that he decides to become straight and the film’s thesis changes ever so slightly.

Where as Borat gave his interview subjects enough rope to hang themselves, Brüno does a great deal as a character to break these people. In the end, their prejudice and homophobia peeks through, but often when the situation gets so absurd that anyone would crack and say something stupid. If I were to set up and interview with Borat, the excuse “he just doesn’t know any better” goes pretty far, but when Brüno shows up to train with the National Guard in Dolce & Gabbana, how does one not see that this is going to end badly?

The parts of the movie that really work, like Brüno’s swapped African baby, Latino furniture, a semi-frightening terrorist interview, and the film’s Straight Dave climax are largely not based on Sacha Baron Cohen playing Brüno as a one-dimensional extremely gay stereotype. Cohen makes reaction comedy where celebrities and normal folks do their best to be tolerant is the joke. The film slows down when we are assaulted with Brüno’s unrealistic collection of cliché homosexual traits.

Don’t get me wrong, Brüno is irreverent, sharp, hilarious and uncomfortable like it should be, but if Borat didn’t win you over with its singular of comic vision, this movie’s mixed collection of subject matter won’t make you a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen.

However, the majority of you will love it like I did, surrounded by an audience laughing so frequently that popcorn went uneaten and drinks were sipped quickly between scenes.

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Yesterday, as the news was pouring in about the death of Michael Jackson by cardiac arrest at the age of 50, I was flipping between MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, scanning Twitter and on the phone with people who call me when pop culture figures die.

As I absorbed the news, I completely forgot that Brüno (July 10th state-side) has a La Toya Jackson scene in it, where the Sacha Baron Cohen character asks La Toya for her brother’s number then mocks his voice and glove. Brüno eventually cons her out of her Blackberry – after serving her sushi on a naked Mexican – only to read MJ’s number out loud (in German, and it’s a 555 number). This sends La Toya stomping out of the interview.

Now, various reports, including The Guardian, The Wrap and Risky Biz Blog claim that this decision has already been made. This from Risky Biz:

But after Jackson’s death on Thursday, the studio and filmmakers decided to remove the scene for the premiere screening out of sensitivity to the Jackson family. The film now cuts directly from Baron Cohen’s gonzo interview with Paula Abdul to a focus-group for his faux reality show.

Still, because many critics attended those earlier showings, its content could make its way into reviews. Indeed, removing the scene in a way calls more attention to it, though the studio clearly wanted to avoid even the perception of poor taste at any cost.

“We decided to take it out for tonight, and we’ll reassess before the release whether to keep it out,” said director Larry Charles at the premiere’s afterparty. A spokesperson for Universal also confirmed that it had not come to any decision on future showings.

Several copies of the film already exist, as the film has begun press and test audience screenings in a few US cities, but it’s unclear if more prints have already been rolled out. Cutting a scene out of a movie is all good, snipping fun until it starts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on interns rooting out the particular reel of the film and trimming some negative. Alternatively, though not cheaper by a long shot, Uni could replace only the reel of film with the scene in question on it, also meaning hefty budgets of new printing costs.

All this after reports that Brüno was already edited so it wouldn’t offend the “Hollywood Gay community.”

I can understand the sentiment of not wanting to pick the scab of the sudden death of a pop icon, or wanting to give the man’s family a few weeks without Jacksons being the punchline in this difficult time. However, if the cut really is what Risky Biz Blog claims above – from Abdul to the focus group – then no one will know that when I call Brad Pitt “Bradolf Pittler” that I’m stealing from Sacha Baron Cohen.

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Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of Ali G and Borat, will play Sherlock Holmes according to Variety. Friend and fellow funny man Will Ferrell will play his crime-solving partner Dr Watson. The movie will be a comedy (obviously) and has nothing to do with the Sherlock Holmes movie Guy Ritchie is working on. Producer Matt Tolmach says:

“Sacha and Will are two of the funniest and most talented guys on the planet, and having them take on these two iconic characters is frankly hilarious.”

The pair worked together on Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby which did rather well. However Ferrell’s most recent movie, Semi-Pro, didn’t do that great at the box office which could suggest people are tired of Will Ferrell playing Will Ferrell just with a different setting. Hopefully this Sherlock Holmes movie will require him to act a little, rather just play his loud and obnoxious self.

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A release date for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno [rest of title] has been set, and its a biggie! We will see a flamboyant Austrian Cohen creating uncomfortable situations with the American public on May 15th 2009. That week has been the release of the Shrek trilogy, all three Star Wars prequels, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Da Vinci Code. To me this suggests Universal mean business!

We havent heard too much about the movie, however thats a good thing as we dont want to be spoiled too early. There has been talk of Ben Affleck being interviewed by Cohen in character, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger. There was also the incident in the lobby of Wichita Kansas Airport, where Bruno and his friend were caught stripping down to tight shorts.

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