Leading, By Examples #3 - Night of the Leading Dead

My 3rd entry for my workplace's leadership blog. You can see past entries here and here for the backstory of what this is all about!

"Not every leader intends to be a leader. In fact, I sometimes get a little bit leery of anyone who seems just a bit too eager to lead. What are their motivations? Are they seeking power for power’s sake, fame, something to look nice on a résumé? Sure some people just have a knack and affinity for leading (possibly innate, possibly developed, probably both) and I don’t mean to malign anyone just for liking the power of leadership. After all, power isn’t “bad” by nature; it’s all about what you do with it. But this entry isn’t about people who were born to lead and who love to lead. No, some of us are thrust into leadership because there’s a need, not a desire. Today we’ll look at one of my favorite examples of this, Shaun from the film Shaun of the Dead.

Shaun (no last name is ever given) isn’t any paragon of leadership at the film’s beginning. He’s a lazy guy who can barely keep his life together. His best friend Ed is a jackass (a loveable jackass, don’t get me wrong, but a jackass), his roommate is pissed at him, his girlfriend Liz is ready to dump him, his step-father thinks he can’t be counted on to keep up a good relationship with his mum (British movie, British spelling), he hates his job, and all he wants to do is sit on the couch and play video games or go to the local pub, the Winchester. While he may technically be a “leader” at his job in an appliance store, he commands and receives no respect whatsoever from his teenage employees, who see him as a loser. Shaun doesn’t seem like much of anyone you’d want to emulate, even if he is a nice enough guy, and funny to boot. You like him, but you don’t want his life.

But then, zombies happen (oops, we’re not meant to use the “zed-word”!). Suddenly Shaun’s life is turned upside-down, even if it takes him a while to realize it. Under the pressure of this outbreak of the walking dead, Shaun doesn’t crack. Instead, he plans, he improvises, he rallies his friends and family, and he manages to keep everyone safe for a while. Now, it’s a safe bet that Shaun had never encountered animated corpses before. He certainly didn’t wish for them to arrive. At no point did Shaun try to name himself a leader in these circumstances. But in this new, frightening situation, Shaun stepped up and became a leader nonetheless.

How did he do it? Fairly simply, he stayed focused on the group mission. The mission was straightforward: survive. Nearly every action Shaun took from the moment he realized the state London was in was done in the service of this goal. But he wasn’t out to just survive alone; he also had the members of his group to consider. Commitment to this goal of shared survival allowed him to make peace with his step-father, confront his best friend about his inconsiderate behavior, and even earn back the respect of his (ex?)girlfriend. And while his best friend and girlfriend might’ve been people he really had a vested interest in saving, he even acted to keep people he didn’t particularly like alive, such as Liz’s dour and annoying friend David. He was committed to the group and the mission.

As a leader, Shaun’s biggest gift was probably his ability to adapt. Over and over his group faced new challenges and watched their situation go from bad to worse. Each time, Shaun was able to improvise a solution, or look within his group for a solution, such as relying on Dianne’s acting skills to help them imitate zombies through an infested area. Shaun used vinyl records, flatware, a cricket bat, and pool cues to fight off the undead, making use of whatever resources were available to help him and his group. At every step, he displayed ingenuity and an unwillingness to give up until things were absolutely hopeless (even then, they turned out not to be).

When it was all over, Shaun went back to pretty much the same life as before. He still enjoyed relaxing on the couch, eating snacks from the convenience store, and playing video games with his buddy. There were a few changes, but all in all, he enjoyed simple pleasures. But now he had a new confidence and satisfaction in the fact that when the going got tough, he got going. Like a modern, lazy, funny Cincinnatus, he stood up and led when he was needed, and then gave up that title to go back to a simpler life. So for all of you out there who haven’t really stepped up and taken leadership roles yet, take heart! Your chance may come once you find the cause you care about and the situation that needs your skills! And hey, you probably won’t even have to deal with zombies."

Snow Time Like the Present

As I look outside, there is more white stuff coating everything than even in the ending of Ghostbusters (you are welcome for that clean yet witty punchline). I know I am getting older because snow is finally starting to feel more like a curse to me than a blessing. I think how much a person likes snow is directly proportional to the amount of driving they're required to do in it. Oh to be 8 again and have snow mean no school, making forts, and drinking hot chocolate. I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on some snow-related things that come to mind, be they good, bad, or other. Without further ado, here's some snowstream-of-consciousness.

Ice Cream - Ice cream is basically snow evolved. Temperature? Same. Texture? Similar. Flavor? + 1,000,000. Some people think it's not fun to eat ice cream in the winter. If you barbecue over an open flame in the summer, why not eat freezing cold ice cream in the winter?

Ice Planet Hoth - The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars movie. I know Star Wars and Return of the Jedi have their fans, and some blind idiot somewhere must be standing up for the prequel trilogy, but really, Empire is unassailable. Part of the charm of this movie is the opening sequence set on a frozen planet where the rebels have holed up. The battle with the Imperial Walkers, the Luke vs. Abominable Snowman sequence, the infamous Tauntaun makeshift sleeping bag (I make references to that ALL THE TIME)... it's just so memorable! And I'm not even particularly a Star Wars geek. A movie geek, yes, which is why I can geek out about Star Wars to some extent, but this isn't fanboy talk. Just sayin'.

Video Game Snow Levels - This is really a mixed bag of a category. Snow/Ice levels in video games tend to either be some of my absolute favorites or absolute hell. I find a direct correlation between how much "slidey" physics a game throws in and how much I want to throw a controller at the screen. My favorite snow level is the Ice Country area of Secret of Mana, which I've referenced before, in no small part thanks to the music which I find so soothing as to be near-therapeutic, as well as the crystal trees that gently change colors. I also like the Ice Cavern in Ocarina of Time despite the "slidey" floors. And I remember really liking the Snowfield area of Final Fantasy Adventure for Game Boy.

Skiing - I have not had the appropriate combination of time, money, and motivation to go skiing for several years now, but I used to love it. In theory, I still do. It's a sport where I don't have to feel like I'm constantly overheating, and it's a chance to move fast, really fast, when I'm more used to moving kinda slow. I used to go to a mountain in Canada every year during February break with my dad's mom's side of the family (The McDormand clan, which was my grandmother's maiden name before she became Lavinia Thirty, and later Lavinia Kodiak). I've got some very good memories of bombing down the slopes with my cousins, and hope to be able to get back into skiing again at some point.

That one shot from the first Lord of the Rings film - I love the Lord of the Rings films and books, and even the occasional video game. Within the film trilogy, there are numerous shots that are absolutely visually stunning, for any number of reasons. Sometimes it's because of the intricacy of the set work, or the expressions of the characters, or the excitement of the action. But my favorite shot in the entire trilogy is a very simple one. It's the shot, as the Fellowship approaches Caradhras the snowy mountain, of the ring on its chain, lying on the snow, having just been dropped by Frodo, who fell over. This is it, or close enough to it.

Woolly Mammoths - Or Mastodons. Either or. In any event, it has been a constant disappointment to me that they aren't around. I can distinctly remember times where I'd think about mammoths, then have the conscious thought, "and there aren't any of them." And then feel sad. BUT!!! Scientists are working on cloning them and having modern elephants carry them to term! In possibly as little as FOUR YEARS we may be a world that once again hosts my favorite ice age animal!!! SO. FREAKING. PUMPED.

Snow Days - They were awesome as a kid. Stay home, play in the snow, hang out... it was great. But as an adult... yep, still awesome.

Christmas - I know. I know I'm agnostic. I know I don't like most Christmas music. I know I don't like most Christmas movies, or Christmas television episodes. But I love Christmas. I really do. Just because I don't like much of what comes along with it doesn't mean I don't dig the holiday itself. And blame Irving Berlin (who I hope just liked snow and wasn't in fact a massive racist), but I associate the holiday with snow, which is one of the things that comes along with Christmas that I am A-OK with.

The Yeti - Probably not real. But would be cool.

One Particular Part of Driving in the Snow - In general, I hate driving in the snow. Even moreso sleet and other precipitation of the "Wintry Mix" variety. But I've always like the look of driving at night, when the snow is falling but not too heavily, of zooming into the snowflakes. It gives the feeling of flying into a starry night sky, and that's pretty damn cool.

The Sound - I really like the sound snow of moderate consistency makes when walked upon. The crunchy sound. Especially if it's otherwise quiet around.

Hostess Snowballs - I don't really like them that much, but they're OK I guess. I always liked Twinkies and Cupcakes better.

(Ant)Arctic Animal Species - Polar Bears, Snow Leopards, Walruses, Seals, Arctic Foxes, Penguins... some of the coolest animals are cold weather animals. As above, soon to be added to this list: WOOLLY FREAKING MAMMOTHS.

OK, that's enough for now. Stay warm, folks!

The Superhero Films I Would've Made Instead

SPOILERS WILL ABOUND, AND SO MIGHT PROFANITY. YOU ARE WARNED.

So, let's get right out in front of it. I love geeky things. Always have, always will. I don't love geeky things exclusively, I love lots of things, but that "lots of things" always has and always will include lots of geeky things. One of the geeky things I've loved since childhood is the world of comic books and superheroes. I watched the cartoons, I collected the comic books, I had action figures, a few trading cards, posters, a subscription to Wizard magazine. I would draw my heroes in all sorts of notebooks, existing ones and ones of my own creation. I think of superheroes as the mythology of our culture, just like the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, the Vikings all had their own tales of heroes and villains with powers far beyond those of normal mortals. Hell, comic books even co-opted some of those very characters and they fit right in (off the top of my head, Thor, Loki, Hercules, and Count Dracula [I know, he's not ancient mythology, but based off of Slavic folklore] have all played at least somewhat major roles in the Marvel universe).

You can imagine my delight at the explosion of the superhero movie genre starting with about the turn of the 21st century. It helped immensely that my favorite superheroes, the X-Men, were the ones that really kicked off this trend. X-Men was a solid comic book movie. X2: X-Men United was even better. Spider-Man was a good comic book movie. Spider-Man 2 was even better. Sure there were some shitty movies mixed in (what up, Ang Lee's Hulk? Oh sorry, is that you, Fantastic Four?) but on the whole, superhero movies were on the rise. Some were incredible. Sin City, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Iron Man... and yes, I'm jumping all over the place chronologically, deal with it.

Not all the superhero movies have been wholly satisfying for me though. Some, while not being outright piles of crap, are not what they should've been either. Let's chat for a minute about two films I wish I could turn back time on and make a different movie instead, and two films that don't yet exist, but that I have ideas for.

X-Men: The Last Stand was garbage. It did have moments, aspects I enjoyed, absolutely. But compare Brett Ratner's foray into the world of the merry mutants (who am I talking like here, Stan frickin' Lee?) with Bryan Singer's two entries. Night and day. This is, of course, barring the fact that Halle Berry, while a gifted actress, is a terrible Storm in all of them. But I'm not here to run down my list of complaints with this movie, I'm here to say what I would do differently.

For one thing, I would've slowed the events down. OK, Jean "dies" at the end of 2. Perfect. We're building up to the Phoenix stuff. So in 3, let's bring her back already so quickly we barely missed her, fly right through Phoenix and go straight to Dark Phoenix. If we're lucky, we'll hardly feel anything at all. Contracts be damned, I would've had Jean Grey stay dead for the entirety of the third movie. How will we miss her if she's never gone? I would've brought her back in a fourth film as Phoenix (and I'm not being a canon fanboy, let's find a way to do this that works in a live action film and doesn't seem comic book-y and schlocky) and let her spend that entire film as Phoenix. Maybe hint at the fact that she has a little bit of issues controlling the power, but keep that to foreshadowing for a fifth film, wherein Dark Phoenix is THE plotline. Not a subthread of Magneto taking over Alcatraz.

I would've also focused less on Wolverine. I know he's the cash cow of the X-Men franchise and I wouldn't write him out, but let's work with an ensemble a little here, folks. We had 3 Wolverine movies, and then a Wolverine movie, because we might not have gotten enough Wolverine (don't get me wrong, great character and Hugh Jackman is great in the role). Could we give Storm an actual character please (and maybe a different actress while we're at it)? Could we not kill Cyclops off screen, a death to which nobody particularly reacts? The strength of the X-Men media has been the fact that they're a team and the personalities play off each other and it's not just one person in the spotlight. I love Wolverine but let's build up the others a bit and give them more to do in my imagined movie.

So what WOULD I have done for a plotline? Sentinels. Not necessarily the hulking purple tin soldiers of the comics and the cartoon, probably smaller and sleeker. More human sized. Hell, have them be modified humans like the Sentinels in the Operation: Zero Tolerance plotline. If we need to give Magneto something villainous to do because he's getting too likable after teaming up with the X-Men in the second film, have him hijack the Sentinels partway through for his own purposes. We can even keep the mutant cure plotline maybe, because nothing is going to make you want to cure your mutancy like robots designed to capture or kill you unless you're a normal human. Adds a whole new level of urgency to the decision, no? The thing I like about the Sentinels is it would build on the themes of prejudice vs. acceptance from the first two films. Humans create the Sentinels because they fear the mutants. The mutants are forced to fight for their lives, which reinforces the idea that they're dangerous, etc. etc. And I would've waited for Byran Singer to finish his other commitment then direct the movie LIKE HE WANTED TO DO rather than get impatient and bring that hack Ratner on board.

Spider-Man 3 was a mediocre film. What would I do differently? Not that much actually, except ask Sam Raimi to make two awesome Spider-Man movies instead of one rushed, jumbled Spider-Man movie. Did we really need the New Goblin, the Sandman, and Venom all in the same film? My complaints about the way it went down are summed up best in the movie scene when Sandman and Venom's teaming up is established with a 15-second scene in an alley where they meet by chance and basically go "Hey, you hate Spider-Man too, right?" Come on, guys. So yes, introduce the black symbiote suit and let that be the major plot here. Give me Sandman. Sure, maybe even New Goblin. And yes, give me Eddie Brock. But DO NOT MAKE HIM VENOM YET. Let this movie establish his rivalry and jealousy towards Peter. Let this movie establish the black symbiote costume. Let the final scene of the film be the embittered, angry Eddie Brock encountering the symbiote for the first time and set up for Spider-Man 4, the Venom one.

They're working on a Captain America movie. I don't know a whole lot about it other than I saw some pretty decent concept art for Cap's costume. I don't think they're going the way I envision for this movie (although maybe they are and they'll surprise me), but what I wanted, to really stand out amongst a crowded field of superhero movies, was a period piece. Captain America works best in World War II. His nationalist get-up screams pro-American forces propaganda (I'm using propaganda here without negative connotations, I'm very much on the side of the Allies in WWII). So let's make a superhero period piece. And go for broke, go for historical accuracy in costuming, set design, vernacular. Make it a legit WWII movie and let's have Cap struggle with having to be the perfect super soldier not just to win in combat but to serve as a symbol for the US to rally around.

OK, last one. There will be a third Batman in the Nolan reboot franchise, of course. Here's my thing: you're not going to get bigger than the mayhem the Joker wreaks in Dark Knight without losing some of the gritty realism of the new franchise. Buildings were collapsing and burning, Batman had sonar-vision, the city was a wreck. Going bigger means getting ridiculous. So how do you raise the stakes without going bigger? Make the threat more intimate. I present to you a revamp of the Mad Hatter. No longer is the Alice in Wonderland stuff just a cute gimmick, this Mad Hatter is a child (pre-teen?) abductor, rapist, and murderer. He is looking for his Alice. He finds candidates, takes them, and ultimately casts them aside, unsatisfied. It's sickening, it's upsetting, and it's how you raise the stakes without going bigger. But Batman's not a 12-year-old girl, you say. How is the threat more intimate? Commissioner Gordon is established as having a son and a daughter. Guess who gets kidnapped to raise the stakes for Batman, already frustrated by failing to catch the Mad Hatter yet. There we go.

So there we go, four film franchises and where I would've taken them or would like to see them go. Please post comments! Tell me what you think! Tell me your own ideas!

Tales from High School X - Mr. Manicotti: King of the VCR

As can be inferred from the name, St. Francis High School is/was a Catholic school. As such, students were required to take a religion course each year. While over the course of four years I experienced increasingly strong theological disputes with course material (a foreshadowing of my future agnosticism), I generally liked the teachers I had for religion. For the first two years I had Mr. Corey Cycle, a pretty young teacher and a fairly cool guy. He would joke around with us but still was good at presenting material in an engaging way. My senior year I had Dr. Albert Focaccia, a Greek Orthodox deacon and a phenomenal person. He was intensely knowledgeable yet easygoing and genuinely cared about students. But my junior year, ah my junior year, that was the year I had Mr. Joseph Manicotti.

Mr. Manicotti, or "Average Joe" as we referred to him as occasionally, seemed like a legitimate average Joe. Generally genial and sporting a moustache, Mr. Manicotti was prone to saying bizarre things or explaining complex ideas in oversimplified ways. For example, to try to teach us about how environmental factors can affect behavior, he explained to us that "Arabs are shifty because they live in the desert." The scarcity of water leads to shiftiness. It's just science, clearly. He truly did not believe this was a racist statement, and said it with no malice, but it was indicative of the kind of skewed or not-thought-through viewpoints he'd periodically present.

Mr. Manicotti was a funny guy, in part because he seemed to lack some of the professional boundaries of conversation that many teachers maintain. While at a retreat before our senior year, Mr. Manicotti told the epic tale of his wife's four pregnancies and childbirths ("two of my kids were accidents!") complete with quoting the phone call from his wife about the fourth pregnancy, which for some reason was quoted in a deep, masculine voice. The spectacle was so outlandishly hilarious that another teacher, Mr. Saismost, had to run out of the room laughing. Other times Mr. Manicotti would attempt to be funny on purpose, usually less effectively. Each of his classes watched the film Romero about the life and assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero as portrayed by the late, great Raul Julia. From talking to other students in other sessions of the same class, apparently Mr. Manicotti scripted a gem of a comment for the climactic assassination scene when Oscar Romero is shot to death with an automatic weapon while performing mass (spoiler? it happened in real life, so...): "Now that's a mortal sin!" Each of the three junior religion classes got to experience that zinger.

Romero was not the only film we watched with Mr. Manicotti, however. No sir. In fact, as the class progressed through the year, my friends and I were convinced that each class session would be a 50/50 chance of watching a movie. We weren't complaining about this by any means, but it did seem strange to us. The films started out very relevant to course material. We watched films such as Romero as discussed above, or Peter and Paul about the early church after the death of Jesus Christ. Schindler's List was a bold choice, and one I enjoyed. Lorenzo's Oil was a bit of a stretch to tie to the material though. At Christmastime, Mr. Manicotti was surprised to discover that some other faculty were actually going to show movies as well and did not reserve a Christmas film in time before they were all grabbed up. Our holiday treat was a random entry from the Eyes on the Prize PBS documentary series about the civil rights movement. A fine series, but How the Grinch Stole Christmas! it ain't. One time we had Mr. Manicotti substitute teach for another class and got to enjoy a documentary about the 1980 USA vs Soviet Olympic match dubbed the "Miracle on Ice."

Things got ludicrous by the end of the year. We watched Deep Blue Sea. You may be familiar with this film. It is about genetically altered "super sharks" that systematically hunt and kill the scientists responsible for their creation. You may know it as "that one movie where Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten by a shark that leaps out of the water behind him" (spoiler? The movie isn't really good enough to merit discretion). The tie to religion class may be the fact that LL Cool J plays a master chef who is also a preacher who manages to defeat a shark by stabbing it's eye with a crucifix (spoiler? Who WOULDN'T see that coming?). Somewhere along the line, we started to suspect that maybe Mr. Manicotti just didn't own a VCR at his home.

The most bizarre movie we watched and the strongest evidence for the "this is the only VCR readily available to Mr. Manicotti" theory cannot be found in any video rental stores. You cannot buy a DVD of it. Youtube does not offer any clips. That is because this movie was a home movie. One morning, we walked in to see the TV/VCR cart set up and ready to go (coin flip came up heads today? Great!). We took our seats and waited for today's entertainment. The image came up on the screen: a girl between 11-13 years old riding a horse. Not in a show or anything. Just like, at a horseback riding lesson. I thought that maybe Mr. Manicotti had taped over this with something we should see, and the real show would begin momentarily. But it did not. "What is this?" asked someone. "That's my little angel!" replied Mr. Manicotti, a proud smile on his face and his eyes fixed on the screen. We watched for like five solid minutes until some less than classy student proclaimed, "hey, she's kinda hot!" Mr. Manicotti was aghast; "Hey, she's only 12 years old!" he chided. "Whatever man, give her a few years," the anonymous commenter shot back. Mr. Manicotti declared movie time over. But the memory would live on in our hearts for years to come.

Bruno: Close, But No (Phallic) Cigar

I have been a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen and his zany personae since about 2001. A friend of mine found a few clips of Ali G from his run on the BBC our freshman year at college shared on the network. How he found them I'm not exactly sure, this was back when there was no search engine or file sharing hub for the network so you had to search shared hard drives individually. Anyway, somehow he stumbled across these video clips that had us in stitches, quoting Ali to each other for months and years to come. Since then, I was delighted when those of us in the States were treated to HBO's Da Ali G Show, I was mildly entertained by Ali G's big screen endeavor, Ali G Indahouse, and I was overwhelmingly thrilled with 2006's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Rarely if ever have I laughed as hard in a movie theater as I did at Borat. The whole theater was full of raucous laughter, in fact, on the opening night show I attended as part of a Borat release party I hosted with my roommate at the time. Subsequent viewings helped me find less obvious jokes in Borat, and also helped me really think about which gags were funny because they were shocking and which gags were well-done comedy (many were both). I've had a long time to reflect on Borat, and my admiration for it as a groundbreaking comedy film has not waned.

Of course, I was very excited to see Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film endeavor. While I've always considered Bruno to be the bronze medal of Cohen's characters, I still had high hopes for the film, seeing as Cohen's 3rd movie attempt would likely benefit from his increased experience in making a feature-length movie. I saw Bruno about six days ago, and have had time to process it now. On the whole, I really enjoyed it. But I must say, I think Borat still trumps it in my opinion. Having taken some time to explore why that is, I will try to explain my contrasts and comparisons here.

There are probably going to be spoilers for one or both films, read at your own risk.

First of all, I think one of the main differences in the films is the likability of the protagonists. Borat, while misogynistic and anti-semitic, was portrayed as a naive innocent whose faulty world views were a direct result of his fictionalized homeland's policies and culture. We, the audience, are sympathetic to Borat because he is trying his best to get by with no knowledge of American social graces or customs. Much of the laughter in Borat comes from his "honest" misconceptions, such as believing human feces should be bagged and discarded, believing pubic hair is a viable resource for bartering, or believing, like a child who has read a scary fairy tale, that Jews are shapeshifting monsters who will kill him if they can. Bruno, in contrast, should know better. Neither being gay nor being Austrian should impart the same level of social ineptitude that Borat's fictionalized homeland of Kazakhstan believably does. Bruno comes across as shallow and somewhat vapid instead of just naive. The character is still quite funny, don't get me wrong, he's just not as easy to root for.

Secondly, while there is some real daring, gut-busting humor in Bruno, a little too much comes from laughing at the fact that, "hey, he's gay! That's so weird and raunchy!" For example, faked up photos of Bruno holding his adopted son in a hot tub while other gay friends engage in sex acts seems to erroneously conflate being gay with lacking sexual boundaries. It could easily be said that the character of Bruno is simply both gay and wild sexually, but this is not the layered image that will likely stay with viewers. GLAAD seems to agree. Let me say though, again, a lot of the movie was hilarious. Even some moments that didn't sit quite right with me still had me laughing. The problem is, the movie simultaneously lampoons homophobia and homosexuality, leading to a mixed, although still largely positive response from me.

Third, some of the jokes don't work quite as well as some of the jokes in Borat. Bruno certainly has it's share of stunningly funny moments (the "special guest" who screams Bruno's name at the end of his TV pilot episode is notably hysterical), but walks across the finish line in a few gags. Let's compare two similar gags from Borat and Bruno: the recurring chicken gag from Borat and the recurring dildo-bike gag from Bruno. The jokes are similar, with both featuring an outlandish accessory appearing unexpectedly in shots throughout the films. However, in my opinion, the chicken gag is much funnier. Here's why: it makes less sense. Hear me out on this.

While the dildo-bike's mere existence is much more ridiculous than the chicken's, once we establish that the chicken and dildo-bike do exist and do belong to their respective film protagonists, the chicken becomes funnier. Once we establish Bruno owns a dildo-bike, we assume he makes use of it. It is not a one-time use item. It makes some level of sense for him to drag it around with him, if he truly enjoys it so much, even though it is ungainly and awkward. The chicken makes no sense. Why is it in a suitcase? Is it food? If it's food, why hasn't he eaten it yet? If it's a pet, why is it lugged around like an item? What has the chicken been doing while it was off-screen? Has it been fed? There are so many unanswered questions about the chicken, while the dildo-bike leaves very few questions beyond, "did he remember to wash that thing before dragging it onto the street?" Both gags are funny, the chicken is better comedy.

Both films are brilliant in some aspects. Sacha Baron Cohen is totally willing to put himself in literal physical danger for comedy, and it shows in both films. There's a real genius to the way he conducts his interviews and leads his marks into the punchlines he's concocted. He becomes his characters totally, not even breaking scene while drunk or being whipped by a belt. All of this holds true in Bruno, so don't let my critiques turn you away from this daring and very funny film. But don't expect to walk away as satisfied as you did from Borat, if you liked Borat. Let's call it an admirable silver medal, which, hey, is a step up from the bronze Bruno held on the TV show.