By TODD MCCARTHY

A Universal release of a Universal Pictures and Media Rights Capital presentation of a Four by Two Films production. Produced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Jay Roach, Dan Mazer, Monica Levinson. Executive producer, Anthony Hines. Co-producers, Jon Poll, Todd Schulman. Directed by Larry Charles. Screenplay, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer, Jeff Schaffer; story, Cohen, Peter Baynham, Hines, Mazer, based on characters created by Cohen.

Bruno – Sacha Baron Cohen
Lutz – Gustaf Hammarsten

There are 61 laughs, three dildos, one gyrating, talking penis, an anal bleaching and one very pissed-off politician in “Bruno,” which should be enough to make any movie fly. But there is also a pronounced nasty streak to the innumerable provocations staged by the title character that curdles the laughs and wears out the flamboyant Austrian fashionista’s welcome within the picture’s brief 82-minute running time. Undeniably funny, outrageous and boundary-pushing, this further documentation of Sacha Baron Cohen’s sheer nerve will draw an abundant share of “Borat” fans, gross-out seekers and the culturally curious, making for some potent B.O. figures, at least at first. But the content will turn off some (no doubt including some gays), as will the sourness and ill will triggered by the picture’s cumulative misanthropy.

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