Bruno's a no-no!

BRUNO (18, 81 MINS) 5/10

LIGHTNING doesn't strike twice for Sacha Baron Cohen in his eagerly-awaited follow-up to the smash hit Borat - Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.

Casting off the ill-fitting suit and moustache of his fictitious reporter, Cohen dresses to distress in figure-hugging hot pants and crop-tops as the eponymous fashionista from Klagenfurt, Austria.

Bruno follows a similar template to its predecessor but whereas the central protagonist of Borat was a loveable innocent abroad, Bruno is a crass, insolent media whore who needs to be taken down a peg or five.

Disappointingly, only once in the film does he get his comeuppance, when he visits a swingers' party and a pneumatic blonde whips him with a belt.

As leather cracks against pasty flesh, and a glint of genuine terror flashes in Cohen's eyes, we whoop with joy - schadenfreude is a wonderful thing.

Some audiences will undoubtedly take offence at Larry Charles's film (which reportedly had a fake working title of Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America For The Purpose Of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable In The Presence Of A Gay Foreigner In A Mesh T-Shirt).

Bruno is a flamboyant gay stereotype writ loud and crude, and we frequently feel grubby watching the character's antics, such as when he visits a medium to contact the ghost of Milli from disgraced 1980s pop group Milli Vanilli (he performs a lurid sexual act on the spirit) or an X-rated montage of bedroom scenes with pygmy flight attendant boyfriend Diesel (Clifford Banagale).

An abortive seduction of 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul leaves a nasty taste in the mouth because we feel desperately sorry for the congressman.

A scene involving LaToya Jackson and an attempt to steal her mobile phone to get brother Michael's number has been cut in light of the self-styled King of Pop's recent death.

It's the only concession to good taste in the entire 81 minutes.

Occasionally Cohen hits his mark.

Bruno's guest spot on Today With Richard Bey, a confessional in the style of Jeremy Kyle, warrants a few chuckles as does a ham-fisted attempt to bring peace to the Middle East.

"You are confusing Hamas and hummus I believe," observes one beleaguered participant.

The crowning glory is the audition for a children's fashion shoot.

"Is your baby fine with lit phosphorous?" he asks one parent in deadpan style before confirming with another that her daughter would be prepared to undergo liposuction.

The mom is delighted when Bruno announces that little Olivia has got the part as a Nazi soldier, pushing a Jewish baby in a wheelbarrow into an oven.

A coda, set eight months later, finds Bruno a reformed man: shaggy-haired, bearded and now living under the moniker of Straight Dave, host of the Man Slammin' Max Out cage fights.

Dave whips the crowd into a frenzy by beating up a gay man - Bruno's nerdy assistant Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten) - then stuns everyone by kissing and fondling his opponent in the ring.

In present-day America, it's perfectly acceptable for two men to beat each other to a bloodied pulp but abhorrent for them to kiss.

Make war not love.

CAPTION(S):

* HIT AND MISS: Sacha Baron Cohen as the outrageously camp Austrian fashionista Bruno