Here’s a lesson in hype.

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen went all out to promote his gay mockumentary Bruno by appearing in flamboyant costumes and thrusting his naked butt in Eminem’s face. That created hype like no other comedy this year.

But when the film arrived, it’s turned out to be a letdown. Rude, embarrassing, tiresome and unfunny, critics panned it and it fared poorly at the US box office.

Meanwhile, the sci-fi flick District 9 received absolutely no hype at all. A low-budget alien movie with no famous actors, it was expected to perform modestly at the box-office before going to video.

But when audiences saw the previews, they absolutely loved it. They raved about it all over the Internet and that generated a lot of hype. Mainstream media caught on and US magazine Entertainment Weekly quickly named it the “Must-See Movie of the Summer”.

Now it’s opened at No. 1 at the US box-office, grossing more at the box-office in its first week than it cost to make.

Moral of the story: Underhype. Overdeliver.

District 9

Cathay Exclusive

This may well be the best sci-fi flick of the year. Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Neill Blomkamp, District 9 is an edge-of-your-seat alien thriller which brims with sheer intelligence and originality.

The astonishing story is set in South Africa where an alien ship has just arrived in Johannesburg, filled with starving and malnourished alien passengers. The humans take them in and place them in shantytown called District 9, where they are treated with disgust and distrust. Soon, the government enacts laws to keep the aliens segregated from the humans.

But the aliens multiply and threaten to rebel against the rules enforced on them. When a white bureaucrat (Sharlto Copley) accidentally ingests an alien substance, he starts to turn into one of them. Slowly, he too begins to understand what it is like to be an alien…

District 9 is a terrific allegory for South African apartheid which separated the blacks and the whites for nearly half a century. The aliens are stand-in for the blacks who were oppressed by the white government for years before they started to revolt.

That director Neill Blomkamp has managed to address a social issue in the form of a science-fiction actioner is nothing short of a triumph. That he made it for less than US$30million and it’s topped the US box-office with a US$37million gross in its first week alone is now the stuff of Hollywood legends. Don’t miss it.

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen – who produced and stars as Bruno – has not done any favours for the gay community.

Before the film was released, there was talk that Sacha was taking on the role of a gay fashionista named Bruno in order to expose homophobia among common folks. Done in mockumentary style, the film’s modus operandi is this: Drop Bruno in a group of unsuspecting ultra-conservative/religious heterosexuals and see how they react to his open gayness.

It sounded delicious.

But now that we’ve seen the film, we doubt those were Sacha’s real motives. For starters, there’s absolutely nothing likeable about Sacha’s representation of gay men. Bruno is loud, vain, flamboyant, smug, bitchy, rude, selfish, dishonest, outrageous, stupid, mean and oversexed. Sacha seemed to have picked the worst stereotypes about gay men and stuffed them into one giant dick of a role, just for the pleasure of pissing on everyone.

Now smart people may argue that Sacha is playing on a satirical note so fine that few will get it. But then again, what’s so enjoyable about an A-grade A-hole ambushing people with aggressive gay behaviour? Somebody please let us in on the joke.

Straight people who hate gay people will hate gay people even more after they watch Bruno. If Sacha wanted to put up a mirror for homophobes to see themselves, this is not the way to do it. But if Sacha wanted to play a mean flaming queen so he can offend millions of people, strengthen his reputation as a shock jock, and make more money as an entertainer… then yes, this would be the way to do it.

We do not recommend watching Bruno.

Bruno is so July 2009.