THE DICTATOR Movie Review
By: RAMA
How did RAMA think this film compared to other Sacha Baron Cohen film?
Sacha Baron Cohen is back and hilarious! THE DICTATOR cracks me up and that’s a good thing considering Bruno was a huge let down. Half political satire, half social commentary, and all around comedy, Cohen’s brand of rude humor at times feels like a series of sketches and though THE DICTATOR will not get you laughing the entire time, the character and the concept themselves will tickle your funny bones, one thing for sure, this is definitely a movie not for the uptight and the easily offended..
The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
It’s not that much mockumentary style this time around, which I appreciate because after Bruno and Borat, that style does get old. Just the character himself, General Aladeen, is brilliant in my book, Cohen has always been skilled when it comes to creating unique characters and this is his best work yet, and his ridiculous accent gives another reason to watch the film. From the start, the movie establishes how egoistic and clueless Aladeen is, he’s the kind of guy who’d order somebody to get executed just for looking at him the wrong way and yet he’d base his nuclear knowledge on a cartoon show that he saw when he was a kid. At the same time, there’s a longing for some motherly love or a woman’s attention that he never got to truly have.
If there’s one thing that’s not quite fine tuned about Aladeen is that Cohen uses one too many of today’s pop culture references into Aladeen’s jokes. For a guy who’s supposed to be a dictator who hates everything that America stands for, he sure does know a lot about America’s media and what American public pays attention to. But then again, that is also a smart move on Cohen’s part because I know for a fact that people in other countries who may hate America, but they don’t necessarily hate America’s glamor, technology, or its Hollywood.
As I mentioned earlier, this movie will not get you laughing the entire time, there will be some down time, and some of the jokes don’t work but when they do, it’s the stuff of comedic legends.
Just like in any of Cohen’s movies, he’d always have to have a best friend, someone to walk him through his journey, in this case, it’s Nadal played by Jason Mantzoukas. Nadal tells it like it is, he can stand up to Aladeen because he knows Aladeen is in the wrong but even Nadal couldn’t conquer the love or whatever feeling that Aladeen feels for the natural home grower, Zoey, played by Anna Faris, an actress who’s known to have a perfect comedic timing and is never ashamed to make fun of herself, which makes Faris one of today’s comedy queens.
There’s a scene in the film in which Aladeen has a long speech about the benefits of dictatorship and that part is Cohen’s way of hinting that America is not as free as it makes itself to be. I think that part would push some buttons and would rub American audiences the wrong way but to some, it may serve as a wake up call, the Cohen edition.
Once again, if you’re uptight, easily offended or can’t take jokes at the expense of 9/11, then THE DICTATOR or any of Cohen’s comedies ain’t for you.
GRADE: 4 out of 5
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