Let’s get this out of the way. Sacha Baron Cohen exploded onto the feature film scene with “Borat” in 2006. “Bruno” quickly followed. Both movies combined the pseudo-documentary and mockumentary styles–along with a lot of potty mouth—to great effect. Both movies featured an odd and uninitiated foreigner coming to America to discover its wonders while at the same time exposing the unseemly side of many of its citizens—a sort of picaresque for the modern age. “Borat” was the more successful of the two, largely because Bruno was a rehash of the first movie with a lot more crudeness and staged scenes.

At first glance, “The Dictator,” which is the third film to combine the irreverence of Cohen and director Larry Charles, would seem to be the same gambit. A foreigner who has no internal censor winds up in America and must make his way with the aide of every masturbation and ethnic joke in the book. What’s different is that “The Dictator” is entirely fictional. There are no interviews with real people who have no idea they are being set up and mercilessly mocked. I think this was a good move for Cohen and Charles. Austin Powers was hilarious. The second installment less so. The third, stale. What started out as fresh and original became old news by film number three.

This is not to say “The Dictator” is a return to the glory of “Borat.” Don’t get me wrong: there are a million laughs in “The Dictator.” Every race, sex, and sector of society is skewered as the character Cohen plays, a fictional mid-east strongman, is replaced by a double on a trip to the United Nations. With the help of a progressive New York shopkeeper (who doesn’t know his identity) and an old countryman, he must thwart a plan to turn his dictatorship into a democracy.

But forget the plot. It’s so thin you’d need a microscope to see it. It’s all just an excuse to turn what feels like a Saturday Night Live skit into a feature film. The movie is as funny as hell, but herein lies the problem. The movie struggles to be an hour and twenty minutes, and at the one-hour mark I was tired of laughing. I wasn’t interested in finding out what was to happen, like I might in most movies, but simply looking for the next gag.

Many would consider Sacha Baron Cohen the comic genius of our time. Indeed, “The Dictator” may be channeling Charlie Chaplin, who made two movies that recall similar story lines. The first was “The Great Dictator,” in which Chaplin plays a fictional Hitler. The second was “A King in New York,” in which Chaplin plays a deposed monarch taking refuge in New York. Is Cohen cribbing or paying homage to Chaplin? Is Cohen the Chaplin of our times? Cohen is a great talent, but I’m not so sure jokes about “rape centers” and anal torture will earn him a place in the pantheon of great film comedians. Too often, Cohen departs from the field of satire and farce and goes for the cheap joke.

“The Dictator” is the kind of movie during which you laugh a lot, but when it appears on cable one year later, you only watch the funniest five minutes. Kind of like a Saturday Night Live skit, except you don’t have to bother with the other one hour and fifteen minutes of ostensible ‘story.’

It was nearly impossible to miss the promotion going on for Sacha Baron Cohen’s newest film, “Bruno.” If you weren’t bombarded with teaser trailers on TV, then you saw his best impersonation of “Blue Steel” plastered on billboards or tales of his antics at premieres scattered throughout the media. With so much bizarre publicity, “Bruno” was bound to be something: brilliant or horrifying was yet to be determined, but definitely something.

Similar to 2006′s “Borat” Bruno is an outsider looking to understand America. Except here he is the most popular fashionista in any German-speaking country (except Germany) who has a major fashion faux pas and is “out” from the Austrian fashion ciruit”¦ and then goes to the States (and from there to the Middle East) to become a big-time American celeb.

What goes on behind the scenes during Cohen’s films only the production crew (and Special Features once “Bruno” hits DVDs) will know, but parts of “Bruno” were clearly scripted. After the controversy of “Borat” from people who said they didn’t know what they were being filmed for, it seems a given that “Bruno” would have had to take a different approach.

But realizing some scenes were scripted didn’t detract from the humor of “Bruno;” in fact, it almost made the film funnier. It created a cohesive story that “Borat” lacked: instead of just being a road movie, it had a beginning, middle and end, and satisfactory ones at that. Undoubtedly this is the best film Cohen has created.

Don’t be misled by R-rated movies that border on PG-13 content: “Bruno” is not a movie to bring the kids to. Making “Borat” look tame in comparison, “Bruno” has more penis shots than a porno and “Watchmen” combined. But what is most bizarre about Cohen’s affinity for male genitalia in his films is that it’s funny. Unbearable at times, yes, but almost tasteful in its usage.

What’s most surprising about “Bruno” is that, despite its often offensive content, it is still incredibly funny. It continued the political commentary begun in Cohen’s “Da Ali G Show” which continued through “Borat” showing exactly how ignorant and appalling Americans can act. But the commentary was second to the story (although it can be argued the story is a commentary in itself) and that’s what makes it a strong film and undoubtedly one of the funniest films to come out of this year.

After Michael Jackson’s death Thursday Universal Studios scrambled to remove a scene from the film “Bruno,” in which Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno questions La Toya Jackson about her brother, before the LA premiere of the film, Universal said in a press release.

Insiders told Entertainment Weekly they managed to cut the scene from the film just an hour before the premiere, which was Thursday night. The scene was previously seen by journalists during pre-screenings of “Bruno.”

The scene featured Bruno, a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista, snagging an interview with La Toya and asking her a series of questions about her brother, Michael. She did not appear to be in on the joke, EW reported.

Universal has not said whether the scene will be included in the film in either its theatrical or DVD releases.

For everyone who missed the MTV Movie Awards last night, the whole evening can be summed up by three letters “" W, T, and F. Together they spell WTF, or for the blunt “" what the fuck?

The awards from their inception have been the MTV generation’s response to the other golden statue “adult” award shows, thus seriousness has never been a top priority. The antics are usually good for a laugh but last night was more awkward than the two hours of blue penis in “Watchmen.”

SNL Digital Short mastermind Andy Samberg was at the helm of the FAIL boat this year (pun absolutely intended). It felt like Samberg was out of his element the entire time he was on stage and only hit his stride was in the”¦well, digital shorts. From the naked-in-Justin-Timberlake’s-limo opening to the “Doubt” video game, the filmed skits were definitely a high for the show. Anyone looking to getcliff notes of the best moments should go for the Samberg, Will Ferrell and “Star Trek” mastermind JJ Abrams’s tribute to bad guys walking away from explosions. You won’t be sorry.

Outside of the pre-taped skits, the best moment of the show award will have to go to Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker’s rendition of “Dick In A Box.” The number, which also featured Leanne Rhymes, hit the perfect mix of inappropriate and entertaining to make the situation just funny. Sadly, other “impromptu” moments of the show didn’t go so well.

I am of course referring to the “Bruno” run in with Eminem. Sasha Baron Cohen is famous for going where no other person would consider going (Borat, anyone?). This year he attended the Awards show as his newest character Bruno, an Austrian fashion designer who will have his own movie coming out later this summer. Cohen, as Bruno, was to present the Best Male Performance award. He flew in from the rafters as a dove but instead of making it to the stage, he got dropped ass-up on top of Eminem. I am still not sure if the drop in on Eminem specifically was intended but it was clear that the Detroit rapper was not warned of Cohen’s antics. Eminem’s entourage quickly removed Cohen’s half-nakedness but not before the entire audience awkwardly stared and giggled at Bruno’s protests: “Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Oh hey, don’t worry! I already have a boyfriend.”

To anyone unaware that the stunt had gone awfully awry, it became obvious when Eminem and crew promptly stormed out of the show and Zac Efron accepted his golden popcorn without the nominees even being read.

I’d like to hope that MTV didn’t purposefully intend to offend their headlining performer, moments after he had gotten off stage. If Cohen was dropped from the ceiling as a pre-planned event instead of making it to the stage, you’d think they’d pick a victim more likely to be receptive to the joke, but instead it just created a dramatic moment and the large majority of viewers bewildered as to what had just happened. Personally, I think Zachary Quinto’s face, as shown by this picture (thanks Livejournal ONTD’ers) during the entire disaster sums up everyone’s feelings on the matter. Shock mixed with uncomfortable laughter “" what else could you do?

It might be noticeable that I have gone through this entire review with little reference to the awards themselves. There’s a simple term to explain that too “" Twilight. This was the first time that the award nominations and winners were both decided by online voters, which could explain why the vampire epic was nominated for seven awards. They walked away with five, including Best Movie and acting nods for both Kristin Stewart (Best Female Performance) and Robert Pattinson (Best Breakthrough Male). Halfway through the show it became no surprise when one of the Vampire crew got up to accept an award. I might be a little biased because I enjoy sipping Twilight “hatorade” more than most, but each of Pattinson’s acceptance speeches seemed forced and condescending as shown by his lackluster “thank you”s. I am sure as an aspiring actor it is disillusioning thinking that you will be spending the rest of your life known as Edward Cullen, but this franchise has made him a household name and you’d think the least he could do when legions of fans honor him is act convincingly grateful.

Other winners included Jim Carrey for Best Comedic Performance (adding another notch to his belt as the person with the most golden popcorns), and Ashley Tisdale for Best Breakthrough Female. Miley Cyrus won first-time-category “Best Song from a Film” with “The Climb” from “The Hannah Montana Movie”.

Ironically, Amy Poehler’s Best WTF Moment win for peeing in the sink in “Baby Mama” was one of the few moments of the show that made sense. The show wasn’t without good moments but overall, it seemed that this year everyone was trying just a little too hard to hit the mark and undershot or drastically missed the point.

In the spirit of internet acronyms the 2009 MTV Movie Awards can be summed up as following: wtf, idk idgi”¦lol? In that order.