I believe that Sacha Baron Cohen may be the most talented comic currently working, and that his performance three years ago in Borat is one of my favorite performances of the decade. Which makes this red-band trailer for Baron Cohen’s latest, Brüno, doubly disappointing- despite all the outrageousness on display, I didn’t laugh once the first time I watched it, and just to be sure I wasn’t just in a bad mood, I watched it again the next day, again without a laugh. Of course, it doesn’t help Brüno may be the least funny of the regular characters from Da Ali G Show. Say what you will about Borat being a caricature, but what really sold the character was less the strange situations he got himself into than his seeming over-eagerness to please in spite of it all. Brüno, on the other hand, is mostly just a mincing stereotype who tries to make people uncomfortable with his unmistakable gayness- which is fine, but the joke only goes so far, and I fear that Sacha Baron Cohen may have overextended it. Still, I have high hopes for his future cinematic projects- the guy is seriously talented, and even in other people’s projects he makes a big impression (he’s a scream in Talladega Nights). And I have a feeling that if some adventurous filmmaker found the right semi-dramatic role for him, he could knock that out of the park too.