Lightning doesn’t strike twice for Sacha Baron Cohen with Bruno, 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 lovable 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. 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 Bay, 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 bewildered participant. The crowning glory is the audition for a children’s fashion shoot. “Is your baby fine with lit phosphorous?” he deadpan asks one parent 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 pummel each other to a bloodied pulp but abhorrent for them to kiss.

Make war not love.

Two high school students hit upon a novel way to seduce their female classmates in Will Gluck’s brash comed Fired Up! Best friends Shawn (Nicholas D’Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are players on the American football team but neither lad fancies the prospect of spending summer at a training camp devoid of the female of the species. So they decide to attend cheerleading camp instead, convinced that it is a fast track to action with the well-choreographed lovelies, led by captain Carly (Sarah Roemer). Shawn and Nick quickly realise that their sexist repartee doesn’t go down well in their new surroundings and they struggle to fit in. Slowly but surely, the two boys discover their sensitive sides, finding the right dance steps in the nick of time to dazzle with the rest of the squad.

Prior to the legendary Rumble in the Jungle boxing match in 1974 in Kinshasa, which pitted Muhammad Ali against George Foreman, African and African-American musicians joined forces to stage a high-profile music concert. Director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte assembles footage from this legendary event in Soul Power with backstage interviews and scenes of everyday life in Zaire. Performers include James Brown, BB King (The Thrill Is Gone) and Bill Withers (Hope She’ll Be Happier).