Bruno

The controversial satirist Sacha Baron Cohen dons another one of the personas from his TV series, "Da Ali G Show". In Bruno, he's the flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion TV reporter. The formula is much the same as Baron Cohen's previous feature, Borat, with Bruno heading to the United States to try and pull a fast one on anyone who has not yet caught on to his schtick.

With sadomasochistic orgies and full-frontal nudity, it's all a bit much. In the UK, the movie was cut down and released in two versions -- one for the 15-to-17 set and the full version for 18 and over. Ukraine banned it. It was rated R in the US.

In Thailand, which does not yet have a ratings system (more on that in a moment), cuts had to be made for the sake of social order. For a struggling government, there's no better way to show the public it cares than to shield people from seeing the swinging junk of a British comedian.

Bruno is in limited release in Bangkok at Paragon and SFW CentralWorld. House on RCA also has it, and in fact the little boutique cinema was supposed to have Bruno exclusively until the other cinemas decided they wanted it to. I called the House box office to find out how much Bruno had been chopped by the censors, and the person answering the phone would not give me details, but said the version at House is "different" than the one showing at the downtown multiplexes.

The Hangover

Todd Phillips is back. The director of the wonderfully sophomoric college romps Road Trip and Old School made a misstep with the sub-par American TV series reboot Starsky and Hutch. But with The Hangover, Phillips has graduated to adult comedy. Sort of.

Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis star as three groomsmen who wake up in a Las Vegas hotel room and can't remember what went on the night before. There's a chicken running around, a tiger chained up in the bathroom and an infant in the closet. And, their best friend, the groom, is missing. To find the guy and get him to the wedding, these three boy-men have to retrace their steps from the night before, a path that they at one point cross with Mike Tyson, who shows them his right cross to the pounding drums of "In the Air Tonight."

The Hangover has been the toast of Hollywood since becoming the best-selling R-rated comedy of all time, topping Beverly Hills Cop.

Also opening

6:66 Tai Mai Dai Tai (Death Happens) -- Wide-eyed Susira Angelina Nunna stars in 6:66 Tai Mai Dai Tai  (6:66 Die Not Die) as a crime reporter who starts uncovering all kinds of scary and gross stories after her father inexplicably wakes up after dying. Jason Young also stars. It's directed by Takeaw Ruengratana and written by Punlop Sinjaroen and produced by Work Point Entertainment, marking a change of pace from the company's Teng Nong/Nong Teng comedies.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 -- Tony Scott does an update of the 1974 thriller using his trademark jerky camera work, saturated colors and explosive firepower, with Denzel Washington in the "everyman" role of a New York subway dispatcher faced with an arch-criminal -- played by an expletive-spewing, "edgy" John Travolta -- who's hijacked a train. James Gandolfini portrays the mayor. I'm not keen on seeing this. I have the DVD of the original, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which is a beautiful slow burn with a wonderfully wry performance by Walter Matthau in the Denzel role and an intense Robert Shaw as the hijacker. The original is slower paced and dated with political incorrectness, but for me that only adds to the appeal. That and the killer score by David Shire.

L'ennemi public n°1  -- Vincent Cassel has ridiculous beards in part two of the French Public Enemy No 1 duology on violent gangster Jacques Mesrine. Here, he dons disguises and robs banks as he tries to stay ahead of the law. At the Lido.

Book of Blood -- Distributor M Pictures, bless them, tried to market this to the press as a "French" movie. But it was produced in England and has an English soundtrack. Not sure what they were thinking. The story is  from horror writer Clive Barker, and is about a paranormal researcher who finds an "intersection" of spectral "highways" in a house. At Paragon Cineplex.

Echelon Conspiracy -- In what looks to be a copycat of the Bourne movies, Shane West is a young American engineer who receives a cellphone message promising him untold wealth. Soon, he finds he's the target of a deadly global plot. Edward Burns and Ving Rhames also star. At SFW Central World and SFX Chaeng Wattana until August 11, and rotating to other SF branches in the weeks thereafter. 

Also showing

• Death in the Land of Melancholia: Lav Diaz Retrospective in Thailand -- The posterior-numbing, mind-altering films of pioneering Filipino indie director Lav Diaz will be featured over the next two months in Bangkok and Phuket. It starts at 4 on Friday at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre with the two-hour Heremias Book II. Rocker director Diaz will answer questions afterward. On Saturday at noon at BACC it’s one of his more-characteristically lengthy works -- the 7.5-hour Melancholia, about a nun, a prostitute and a pimp meeting in a small town. They all knew each other before. At noon Sunday at Bangkok Code on South Sathorn Road it’s the nine-hour Death in the Land of Encantos, about a poet returning to his home village after it was wiped out by a landslide.  Encantos also screens at 10am on Monday at the Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom. You can e-mail filmsick [at] gmail.com for more details or check my earlier blog post about this for the full rundown of films and venues.
• Short Film Marathon -- The preliminary round of the 13th Bangkok Short Film and Video Festival is running at 5 daily until Sunday in conference room 4 at the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. They had around 600 or so films to watch and select for the August 13 to 24 fest.

Take note

That's seven movies opening commercially this week, plus marathons of short and long, long films. It's a lot to take in. But here's more.

Thailand's first motion-picture ratings system is set to come into effect in the middle of August.

The Nation/Daily Xpress had the story on Wednesday. Here's the part about the movie ratings:

[Culture Minister Teera Slukpetch] said there were seven categories: educational films people are encouraged to see; films suitable for the general audience; films suitable for those over 13; films suitable for those over 15; films suitable for those over 18; films restricted for persons under 20, and films banned from being screened in the Kingdom.

Teera also said that the ministry has finished making the six rating symbols and would submit them to the National Committee on Film and Video in mid-August before they are implemented.

The symbols are: “Sor” (from the Thai word song serm that means “promote”) for educational films people are encouraged to see; “Thor” (from thua pai meaning “general”) for films suitable for the general audience; “Nor 13+” (Nor is from naenam meaning “advisory”) for films suitable for those over 13; “Nor 15+”; “Nor 18+”, and “Chor 20+” (Chor is from chapor that means “specific”) for films restricted for persons under 20.

The seventh category is hidden on the chart. It's for the banned films that might pose a threat to national security. Because the films won't be seen, ever, there's no need to assign the category a symbol.

The smiley-face symbol is for the "educational" or "promote" category. The house is for general audiences.

For the 13+ to 18+ age restrictions, the rating is advisory only. Which means you'll still encounter blinkered parents who bring their screaming toddlers to see a gory horror film or loud, bloody action film rated for people 15 or 18 and over.

The 20+ rating is a mandatory restriction, with ID checks required. I don't think we'll be seeing many 20+ movies released in Thailand.

The ratings system has been long in the works and is long overdue for the Kingdom. The current film censorship law dates back to 1930, so the ratings are a welcome progressive change. But there's that troublesome "ban" category, and I don't think the censors are ready to put away their scissors either, so no full-frontal nudity scenes, even if the film is rated 18+ or 20+.