Afternoon Greg: “Bruno” leads off two-day uncle-nephew movie marathon

I’ve been watching all kinds of movies as I hang out in The OC this week with family. My nephew Anthony and I went to see Bruno yesterday in Huntington Beach and even if I were not a gay man, I just did not find it very funny. In fact, at one point I started to nod off!

Sacha Baron Cohen is totally fearless but what a waste of  his considerable talents. In particular, I  didn’t appreciate the depictions of gay sex because it perpetuates kinky stereotypes. But there were some interesting parts like the crowd’s reaction and disgust when Bruno and his lover start making out in the middle of a wrestling match. You would think something really horrible was going on instead of something so beautiful as two men kissing.

As we were walking out of the multiplex, my nephew and I both agreed that we should have gone to see The Hangover.

When we got back to my mom’s house, we continued our movie marathon with some DVDs. The first was the very funny Let’s Go to Prison which ended up being far more gay than I realized when I was trying to pick out movies I thought my 26-year-old nephew would enjoy.

Who knew that Will Arnett and Chi McBride would be such a good couple? In contrast to Bruno, the gay storyline was handled very sweetly and without any gay panic or kinky sex. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. I had not been at all familiar with Dax Shepard and boy, he sure is a cutie.

Then there was the biggest surprise of our day: The Long Weekend starring Chris Klein and Brendan Fehr. Apparently this movie came out back in 2005 but it was on the new release shelf at 20-20 Video in West Hollywood so that’s how I spotted it.

It’s a great comedy showcase for the two actors with Klein just a riot as Fehr’s actor brother. There’s a scene at a funeral home where he is pretending to be a priest that was just hilarious. After the credits, several outtakes are shown and you can see how many times Fehr was unable to keep from laughing as Klein delivered his lines and what also appears to be a lot of adlibs.

What also made this movie stand out from the pack of young guy comedies was the use of home videos throughout to puncuate a point or thought. It really is quite brilliant at times and ends up working perfectly with the film’s ending.

*** Today, the moviegoing continued when Anthony and I went over to my sister’s house and scooped up my little niece and nephew and took them to see the Pixar movie Up. It’s a 3-D movie so we had the glasses on and I’ver become such a fan of this.

The movie itself is superb and really a surprise for me because I had not seen more than the trailer and was surprised and delighted at the places it takes you. Ed Asner is the perfect choice to voice the retired balloon stand operator in the film who uproots his home and his life in an unexpected way.

It’s a wonderful movie.

No movies tomorrow, we are headed to the Orange County Fair where I am determined to try a deep-fried Twinkie for the first time.