SACHA BARON COHEN ANNA FARRIS BEN KINGSLEY
THE DICTATOR
With all the stunts and appearances Sacha Baron Cohen has made this year promoting his new film The Dictator, I expected much more than what I got. As far as outrageous goes, The Dictator is his most subdued; or perhaps we are so familiar with the routine that it isn’t shocking. I found it disappointing that he spends so little time in the film as “The Dictator” and more time as this Allison Burger character in a pretty typical slapstick comedy romance. He certainly has more cameo appearances here than ever before, including Edward Norton, John C. Reilly and Megan Fox. There is the anticipated frontal nudity (although he is wearing a different prosthetic this time), but nothing really surprised me in this, his third film.
General Aladeen (Cohen) heads to the UN in New York to make sure that his country in the Middle East continues as a dictatorship and not a democracy; “My people want oppression," he says. However, his right hand man (Kingsley) has other plans in mind for the country, in which so many oil companies want to get their hands on. Upon arrival to Times Square, General Aladeen says, “America, built by the blacks and owned by Chinese”. As the real Aladeen is replaced by an imposter and shaved of his trademark beard, he must roam the streets of New York trying to find a way to reinstate himself.
This is the best line in the entire script: “Crocs are the universal symbol of a man who has given up”. Cohen, who of course also produced the film and wrote the screenplay, equally insults all races, genders, creeds and religions as he does with every film. Perhaps with Borat it was unusual and shocking, Bruno felt less novel, but this film just seems like it's trying to squeeze the last bit of juice out of an already dry orange. Kingsley and Cohen worked together on Hugo, which is why director Martin Scorsese appeared with “The Dictator” last week on SNL. Cohen, clearly a smart and uninhibited actor, would do wise to seek a career change.
The best scene from The Dictator wasn’t in the movie, it was a stunt Cohen pulled while being interviewed by Ryan Seacrest on the Oscars red carpet. He poured ashes all over the anchor, who suspected all along he was up to something. That scene was more entertaining and surprising than anything we see in this film. I found the entire film boring, and for anyone seeking a well earned laugh, you won’t find it here.
Final Thought – Cohen’s least funny, least shocking film yet.
Grade D+
By: Dustin Chase W.
Editor: Michael Woody
Dr. Donna Copeland’s
2nd OPINION
This film is a bit hard to review because it swings in quality from very funny and clever to gross to only “sorta” funny. There is not much of a coherent story, but we do get interested in how mixed-up identities will be resolved and how the romance will turn out. Most of the film is Sacha Baron Cohen doing his thing and being irreverent and obnoxious in the same way as in Borat, his earlier film. I found his brand of humor entertaining and funny the first time I saw it in that film, but by now, the antiauthoritarian, outrageous jokes and escapades are getting stale. The jokes that are funny in Dictator usually elicit just a brief chuckle or smile.
I did think it was clever and funny when General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen) changes the language of his country; for instance, ‘aladeen’ becomes the word for both ‘positive and ‘negative’, with hilarious consequences (e.g., “you are HIV aladeen”). Another time, when he is asked his name, but doesn’t want to reveal his identity, he makes up aliases from signs about washing hands and maximum occupancy by mushing the words together with a foreign accent so they sound like a real name. But the funniest moment in the film to me was his speech to the UN at the end when he praises America for our brand of democracy in which we give more tax advantages to those with the highest income in the country, hide the real reasons for going to war, etc. Then he catches himself and reverses his statements to say that he will institute “true” democracy in his country, defining it in the way we normally think of it.
Bottom line: See this film if you’re in the mood for ‘silly’, but keep in mind it will not be as entertaining as Borat.