Brüno (18)

THE list of great British stars who fail to make it big in Hollywood is long and dismal.

June Sarpong, Calum Best, Martine McCutcheon . . .

All of them leave the UK amid a storm of smug mag interviews, jet to LA, get snapped by the pool, "have meetings", "look at various projects" . . . then crawl back home a short while later to appear in Hole In The Wall.

So on the one hand it's good to know that despite the many duff spoofs and Sandra Bullock romcoms La-La Land churns out, Hollywood has not lost all semblance of taste.

On the other, it's a grim sign that our home-grown "talent" rarely has the skills or charm to make it on the global stage.

Yet there is one magnificent exception.

Yes this week we pay tribute to a man who, with one successful Channel 4 show in the bag, took his act to the USA and became a comedy megastar in every country on the face of the earth (except possibly Kazakhstan). His name is Sacha Baron Cohen. And for this reviewer's dollar, he's the greatest British comedian working today.

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What's his forte? Pretty much everything, to be frank.

But. specifically: Original and unforgettable characters, razor-sharp one-liners, cringe comedy of the highest order, and sketches so many light-years past deranged they could only have been conceived of by a mind that is not entirely of this planet.

And he's got bigger balls than a 30ft Decepticon.

Here is a man who was signed up to make Universal's biggest summer movie and delivered an 18-rated comedy - probably the least marketable genre/rating combo imaginable - and refused to cut a single filthy second of it.

Unt zank Karl Lagerfeld for zat. Because Brüno is nothing short of outstanding.

It's a toned, Hollywood-waxed, 82-minute comedy blitzkrieg that made me laugh until my kugelsack ached.

Naked

Working along similar lines to 2006's smash hit Borat, Brüno sees Sacha's knacker-retractingly camp Austrian fashion guru rampage across the USA (and briefly the Middle East), duping celebs and members of the public into thinking he's for real as he tries to become the "biggest Austrian celebrity since Hitler".

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Fortunately, as with Borat, there's no end of muppets happy to disgrace themselves on camera - whether it's celebs, vapid PRs, religious nuts or bumwit bigots. And this time the stunts are higher profile and, at times, terrifyingly high risk. Brüno gatecrashes Milan Fashion Week. He eats sushi with Paula Abdul, served on a naked Mexican.

He tries to make a sex tape with Republican Party Presidential candidate Ron Paul. He trains with the Alabama National Guard.

And in one bona fide jaw-on-the-floor moment, he sits down with a leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an established terrorist cell responsible for killing 130 civilians since 2001, and offers some unusual opinions on Osama bin Laden's personal grooming.

Forget your 17-minute single-take art movies and digital video-based gangster thrillers. THIS is brave filmmaking, my friends.

And my undignified, raving adoration for it knows almost no bounds - mainly because it delivers around one screech-out-loud gag every two minutes, a hit rate well beyond the wildest dreams of most comedy writers and actors alike.

But the very best thing about Brüno is not knowing what the floppy-haired muppet will say or do next.

You won't read about any of the best bits here, because I'm not going to be the artless sod who gives the game away. But suffice it to say, there are PLENTY.

And a second viewing yields many, many more beautiful moments you miss the first time round, probably thanks to fingers over your eyes.

There's only one complaint. Over the end credits, Brüno sings a spoof charity single with Bono, Sting, Chris Martin, and other assorted credibility vampires.

You don't need to see the looks of barely disguised glee on their smug little faces to know they couldn't be more delighted with their all-star cameo slots.

Stop here, Sacha, while there's still time. Stop long before you get into Ricky Gervais Extras territory.

There's also a lot of unnecessary nudity, vile language and sleazy content throughout . . . which just about makes up for that lapse in the credits.

Borat remains Sacha Baron Cohen's masterpiece. But gag for gag, Brüno is every bit its equal.

So is it the best comedy of the year? Without a doubt.

Better even than In The Loop? Surprisingly, yes.

Funniest film since a moustachioed anti-Semite took cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan?

You had better believe it, girlfriend.

OUT FRIDAY

• Borat comic's new gay creation Bruno talks to our film critic

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