Brüno

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This movie is really offensive. In fact I can't even talk about this movie without being more explicit than usual. If you have trouble with that, then this movie is certainly not for you.
Plot: There is barely a plot in Bruno, but briefly a gay Austrian talk show host comes to America to become famous. When he is in the US, he takes up schemes to gain fame. He tries [SPOILERS] a talk show, adopting an African child, solving the Middle-East crisis, and becoming straight. There are endless gay sex jokes and simulated sex. There is, unforgettably, a dancing & talking penis; as well as pantomimed sex with an invisible ghost.
Review: This movie is impossible to review. Only people that LOVED Borat should even consider this movie, because it has double the gross-out sex humor and half the political satire. It is just as funny, and farther out on the frontier between tasteless and hilarious. Some of the funnier parts are the reactions of the bystanders to Bruno, for example in the talk show with his adopted baby. It is impossible to know which of the scenes are staged and which are real, and guessing is part of the fun.

Like Austin Power's, Bruno breaks out of its storyline to satirize American life generally like celebrity adoptions and stage Moms.

Cast and crew: Sasha Baron Cohen, Gustof Hamerstein; directed by Larry Charles.
Rating: 2.0 flasks; It is three flasks of funny, but loses 1 flask because it is extremely tasteless.

My wife, who loved Borat, thought the Swinger's party was too much, and did not like the movie.
More: Unreviewable. It is outrageous, but it is also a parity of outrageous movies. It is quite piece of work, but it hard to know what to make of it.

Public Enemies

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Plot: John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is a bank robber in the 1930's, and FBI agent Melvin Pervis's (Christian Bale) G-Men try to hunt him down. John meets girlfriend Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard), and their lovestory becomes a weakness which Pervis exploits.

Review: Johnny Depp's John Dillinger is a dynamic and lively character whose populist appeal of stealing from the banks and not the bank's customers made him popular among the masses in Chicago. There are some knowing parallels between robbing banks in the 1930's and the financial crisis today --the same anti-plutocrat populism.

The art direction and photography is excellent and captures the mood. There is excellent non-verbal, story-telling, especially during the arrest sequence in the middle of the movie. The soundtrack is strong too.

One of the best movies of the year. Oscar quality work for Johnny Depp. I originally rated this higher, but the next morning I realized that the character development was not that strong, and that only Johnny Depp's performance was outstanding.

Cast and crew: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cottillard, Directed by Michael Mann

Rating: 3 flasks

More: At right is a picture of the real John Dillinger, who looks much older than his 31 years. The real Dillinger did embrace the criminal lifestyle during prison time early in his life, and learned bankrobbing from older convicts he met there.

[SPOILERS] There was an FBI siege of a Wisconsin hunting lodge, and he was finally killed after being turned over by a Romanian madam who had immigation issues, ... and a red dress.

His real wife was Beryl Hovious, not Billie Frechette.