The Dictator Reviews

Es humor negro puro y duro. Hay racismo, xenofobia, islamofobia y todo aquello que se considera "políticamente incorrecto" en la actualidad. Las personas más impresionables puede ser perturbadas por una obra que no aspira nada más que hacer reír.

Like most of us, I was really impressed by ‘Borat’ which must be one of the funniest movies made in the last 10 years and, from then on, it seemed that Sacha Baron Cohen would become the next comedic genius. Then, he used the same trick for ‘Bruno’ and I thought it didn’t work that well this time. With this in mind, I tempered my expectations for his next feature, and this time, he made a smart move and decided to try something different , which was a more traditional comedy with a real plot and no semi-documentary shenanigans. Eventually, I thought it was not bad but nothing really amazing, I’m afraid. The point is that, even though the approach was different, the humor was still the same and I think I’m getting a little bit tired of his really crude jokes. Furthermore, the plot was not really amazing, it was basically a mix of ‘The Great Dictator’ and ‘The Emperor’s new groove’ with a rather underwhelming romance on top of that. Above all, only half of the jokes really worked, the other half was just really tedious. For example, the scene with John C. Reilly as a murderer/torturer was great and so was Cohen´s speech about ´What if America was a dictartorship?’ but the rest was hardly memorable. To conclude, even though it was only a slight improvement on ‘Bruno’, it remains a decent comedy and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Political satire takes an equal amount of balls and tact. Too often does a satire movie end up too preachy, too safe or too overdone that it crosses that thin line. It takes a master to craft a film that delivers a good punch without being too painful. Enter "The Dictator", a witty, funny, biting political and social satire that can easily be the most hilarious film this year.

Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen team up once again to bring us black comedy at its finest. If the snide opening dedication to the late Kim Jong Il does not get you at least grinning or chuckling then you know you're in the wrong theatre. You are not here to watch some tame little romantic comedy. You are here to behold the rise and fall and rise again and fall again of Admiral General Aladeen; the perverted, anti- westerner, immature and slightly off his rocker ruler of the North African republic of Wadiya. His lecherous decadent life is shattered on a fateful trip to address the UN over talks of stopping Wadiya's development of nuclear weapons. Betrayed by his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley effectively reprising his role of treacherous right hand man from Pince of Persia), replaced by a mentally challenged decoy, and shaved of his trademark beard by a hit-man, Aladeen embarks on a clandestine scheme to get back into power by joining forces with a Wadiyan refugee (whom he supposedly executed) and a tomboyish political activist named Zoey.

Strip the story down to its bones and it is "Prince and the Pauper" or "Emperor's New Groove". Heck, it's "Lion King" complete with treacherous uncle and African monarch. A sheltered leader falls from power and soon learns the simple joys of a simple life. Not very original there. Yet it is in the pitch perfect execution of this tried and tested plot that The Dictator stands out. Sacha Baron Cohen IS Admiral General Aladeen. He plays the role with such earnest vigour that, like his previous film portrayal of fictional Kazakstanian Borat, you would be hard pressed not to believe Aladeen exists in the real world as a real person. Ironic in that his overblown antics are anything but real. He is a caricature, much like The supporting cast consisting of caricatures of typically oppressed demographics of a population; the minorities, the disabled, those who are different etc. All put on performances beyond excellence but one cannot help but pity how Ben Kingsley has been so under utilized as an actor of late.

The Star attraction is of course, the satire aspect. Other satires may bare their political teeth, but The Dictator sinks its whole jaw into themes of racial oppression, the contradictory nature of democracy, the recent world economic situation, the rise of China and it's own brand of "democracy" etc. It is intentionally crafted to tick off the right people and entertain everyone else. Crude without being overly offensive, . Even the more "icky" stuff are played strictly for laughs. You'd get it if you had a sense of humor. The hard hitting jabs at politics and social issues are interspersed with looney toons style slapstick and a tender emotional subplot that actually feels right in place.

One downside is that this film does require the viewer to have a bit of knowledge of current world socio-political issues. Failing which, a good number of the jokes and jabs would just fly over the heads of the ignorant such as a rousing climatic speech by Aladeen extolling the virtues of dictatorship. (It is not as straight forward as you think. Those that get it will get it good).

Without the aforementioned prerequisite, The Dictator would come across as just another "Prince and the Pauper" comedy clone.But for those in the know, for those willing to think through all the little mocking points raised by the narrative, it is the softer spiritual cousin to "Team America", the vulgar dysfunctional third nephew to "Fahrenheit 911" and the crude great grandson of Charlie Chaplin's 1940's classic "The Great Dictator". IF anything, The Dictator serves to establish Sacha Baron Cohen as possibly the finest comedy actor of our decade. May his reign be long, hard and full of.................well, you get the point.

Typically irreverent and sacreligious but not one of Sacha's funniest, though it has its moments. As always with Baron Cohen's work there are salty truths and messages buried within. Towards the end - "Why are you guys so anti-dictators? ..." - it delivers a stinging rebuke outlining how America has managed to put the mock in democracy whilst morally bigging itself up to other nations.

The quality of cinematography is of a high order and the music, by Sacha's brother Erran, is fresh and apt. The elfin (and rather cute) Anna Faris was well chosen for the rom-com aspect of the piece but overall the thing lacked focus. It seems to be a part of Baron Cohen's ouvre that he can confuse, shock and tickle you in as few words as possible. Sometimes that appeals, sometimes it doesn't.

It's a satire on dictators and how they live and do stuff.
and the greatest thing about this movie is the music. Song choices and music just keep the movie quite upbeat and I certainly enjoyed it at many occasions.
The story is quite flawed. In the middle I felt like they made the whole introduction go in vain because the opening scenes are good and you enjoy the dark humor but gradually when you go to middle, you feel kind of cheated.

I felt like I was watching a live action version of the emperor's new groove because both follow the same idea only in this live action, you can't go this much u-turn on a person. So, yeah I am kind of disappointed.

story is cliched, music as I said is awesome, certain times the comedy doesn't work and some times certain things don't make sense.

Now, the big question, should you watch it!
You should watch it if:
-you are looking for a movie to see with your guy friends and you just want to laugh.
- you don't mind cliches
-you are not fond of putting your brain to work while watching movies.

the end

Following the experiences of Borat in 2006 and Bruno in 2009, any mockumentary involving Sacha Baron Cohen will either become a huge controversial offense to specific viewers or turn out to be just a traditional laugh out loud comedy. Once again, Baron Cohen decides to mock another social class of individuals which could become the most insulting so far. Although, there were still the few abusive jokes of racism, sexism and other real-life issues added onto the screen and amongst its fair share of flaws, The Dictator was still funny for what it is and did exceptionally well as a comedy that is still enjoyable and entertaining to watch.


Director Larry Charles reunites with Sacha Baron Cohen for the third consecutive time as the director of The Dictator. As predicted, he adds the same type of on-running gags and laughs that we have seen before but on occasions; there were the odd moments of complete and utter shock. Furthermore, it is still the meaningless and crazy story that we all expected it to be. However, The Dictator, unlike Bruno and Borat, was not filmed in a documentary-style format. Therefore, it had a traditional story to it with a protagonist, antagonist and love interest. The work from Larry Charles and Sacha Baron Cohen will slowly fade due to repetition but the more ideas that they come up with, the longer the entertainment will last.


Sacha Baron Cohen is truly a very brave special actor. Not only because he risks his reputation as a person to mock specific social classes or make fun of certain world events, but because in the films he stars in, he is both an actor to find hilarious and to take very seriously. Furthermore, he takes the film entirely as his own and, thus, steals the show. Baron Cohen’s latest character Admiral General Aladeen can quite easily be seen as an offense to specific viewers but if there is anybody that appears to be an insult to a culture but can still be hilariously funny about it, it can only be Sacha Baron Cohen. Therefore for this reason, you really are not sure whether to take this General Aladeen really seriously or as some sort of on-screen prank. What you see is what you get with Baron Cohen in this role and although he doesn’t quite connect to the character as firmly as he did portraying Borat and Bruno, he stills gives another hilarious performance in The Dictator.


As we witnessed in previous Charles-Baron Cohen works, certain Hollywood actors have made cameos only as themselves. However, The Dictator goes somewhere a little different this time as Hollywood actors, apart from Sacha, actually have a role in the film as opposed to very brief appearances. First, there is Anna Faris who portrayed co-op manager and activist Zoey, who gradually becomes a love interest for Aladeen. This is where The Dictator is flawed as a subplot was introduced – a forbidden romance between Aladeen and Zoey. Unfortunately, it really did not work in this film as there was no emotional and genuinely heartfelt connection between them and she was needlessly there on the screen. In fact, she did not even have to be part of the film at all. A bit more sophistication was added into The Dictator as Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley performed as Aladeen’s treacherous uncle Tamir, the antagonist of the story, and John C. Reilly had a role as hitman Clayton. Furthermore, there were still the traditional cameo appearances from certain actors who portrayed themselves, such as Megan Fox and Edward Norton.


Overall, The Dictator is yet another humorous, successful comedy from Baron Cohen and Charles that is nothing to take seriously, but is still an enjoyable delight. It was not quite as shocking or as funny as Borat or Bruno but it is still gives exactly what you would expect from it. Of what is featured in the film (characters, story) is nothing to take seriously. It only depends on how the viewers respond to it. Nevertheless, if you are in the right frame of mind, have the right sense of humour to watch it and have enjoyed Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles’ past works, then you will get enjoyment from this that could become your guilty pleasure.

"America! The birthplace of AIDS!"

Who would've thought that Sacha Baron Cohen had another new character in him? The talented performer fooled the world using the personas of Ali G, Borat and Bruno, and now Cohen has re-teamed with director Larry Charles to introduce another comic creation for another hard-R comedy destined to be both controversial and polarising. Like Cohen and Charles' prior collaborations, The Dictator is a character-based comedy more concerned with vignettes than storytelling, but this is a scripted movie with slick production values instead of a mockumentary. Fortunately, though, the controversial punch of Borat and Bruno remains - The Dictator is gleefully un-PC, to the extent that it even kicks off with a title card announcing itself to be dedicated to the memory of Kim Jong Il. But what's disappointing is that Cohen's brilliant new caricature has been situated within a paint-by-numbers plot.

A flagrant dictator, Admiral General Aladeen (Cohen) rules the North African Republic of Wadiya with an iron fist and zero tolerance. Suspected of war crimes and a secret nuclear arms program, Aladeen agrees to travel to New York City to address the charges against him in front of the UN. Upon arrival, a government official (Reilly) kidnaps Aladeen and strips him of his iconic beard. Stranded on the streets of NYC where nobody will recognise him, Aladeen is taken in by a feminist, activist and grocery store manager named Zoey (Faris) who believes Aladeen is actually a political refugee named Allison Burgers. Meanwhile, Aladeen's backstabbing confidant Tamir (Kingsley) begins to use an idiotic Aladeen body double to represent Wadiya in front of the UN and announce that the nation will become a democracy. Appalled by the notion of equality and peace, Aladeen teams up with former nuclear scientist Nadal (Mantzoukas) as he sets out to reclaim his power.

The Dictator is welcomely brisk. Charles keeps the flick taut and disciplined, charging ahead with maximum momentum and brevity to ensure the film never outstays its welcome. On the downside, the story is too standard-order - its twists and turns are pure formula, leading to an ending which introduces generic character arcs. Sure, Cohen and Charles likely felt that Aladeen needed to change his ways since it's challenging to sympathise or care about a murdering terrorist, but is such an arc really necessary in what's meant to be a dark, politically incorrect comedy? And did the pair really have to opt for a story as overdone and thin as this? The romantic subplot with Zoey, meanwhile, is clichéd hogwash. The Dictator should have merely served as a playground for Cohen to go nuts with his new role (the notion of him trolling the UN is a feature-length film premise in itself), but Aladeen's shenanigans are less fun and even somewhat restricted when everything is so written and doctored.

Fortunately, The Dictator is an utter hoot whenever Sacha Baron Cohen does what he does best. The picture is littered with great gags and one-liners, most of which are in appalling taste. Cohen is an equal opportunity comedian - he sucker punches everyone and every taste here. Consequently, at any time half the audience will be offended while the other half will be laughing uproariously. And my word, the best jokes here are almost on the same level as Borat. On top of offensive dialogue (including rape jokes, sexist jokes and racist jokes), a few sight gags are destined to be controversial (including a terrorist Wii game that allows Aladeen to behead people and re-enact the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre). Cohen's humour occasionally has bite, too - he attacks China, satirises America's current political state in a very ballsy way, and generally pokes holes in widespread ideologies. Due to its extreme content, though, The Dictator is not for every taste. This is a picture designed for those who enjoy Cohen's typical brand of provocative humour and/or R-rated comedies in general. If you felt that Borat and Bruno crossed the line, this is not a movie for you.

Sacha Baron Cohen is an utterly fearless performer. He's a fine cinematic troll who'll go to great lengths - no matter the cost - to sell his characters' personas and make people laugh. Not every joke is gold here, but you cannot fault Cohen's sheer eagerness in the role of Admiral General Aladeen. Another standout in the cast is Jason Mantzoukas as Nadal. Mantzoukas scores a number of huge laughs, and his chemistry with Cohen is marvellous; it's pure gold to watch the bantering between the two. As for Anna Faris, the actress does a fine job as Zoey. There are also numerous celebrity cameos scattered throughout the picture which are too amusing to spoil.

The end of Cohen's hidden camera productions was inevitable, as Borat and Bruno stirred up such a ruckus that people are bound to recognise Cohen no matter how much make-up he wears. This is all well and good, but The Dictator does feel too calculated. The charm of Borat was how raw and spontaneous it felt (no matter how scripted some sections might have been), whereas this flick is polished to an almost detrimental degree. Still, The Dictator is frequently hilarious to such an extent that it's worth seeing. Fans of Sacha Baron Cohen will most likely enjoy it.

6.8/10

I used to think that the main reason why I enjoyed both Borat and Bruno was mostly due to the brilliance of the sociopolitical satire that each of those films brought to the table. But now I realize that those two movies had something else (an added push, if you will): both movies delivered their sociopolitical satire through humor of the "I CANNOT believe they just did that!" variety. Borat and Bruno both made great observations about cultural and societal ignorance, but in addition to doing that, they both made my jaw drop on several occasions, and both films had at least one instance in which I found myself needing to cover my eyes. It's too bad that I can't say the same about The Dictator. I'm not sure if this is an active decision on Sacha Baron Cohen's part to make his latest film not quite as outrageous as his previous two outings, or if I've simply become desensitized over the past three years and nothing shocks me anymore. But the truth remains that, while there are isolated laughs to be had in The Dictator, they're all controlled laughs, none of which will have you bursting or howling. This isn't one of those movies in which, once a scene ends and the next one begins, people will still be laughing from what they just saw in the prior scene. The fact that the movie's humor still works more often than it doesn't would normally lead me to still recommend it, but unfortunately, I'm having a hard time forgiving some truly unnecessary (and not particularly funny) material that's been stuffed into the film's skinny 80 minutes just so it could reach feature-length time, and I'm having an even harder time forgiving the film's excruciatingly poorly-conceived romantic subplot.

As it always goes in these films, Cohen plays a character who lives in a country outside of the US, but for one reason or another, ends up traveling to America and engaging in all sorts of shenanigans as soon as he gets there. In this case, though, I'm inclined to think there may have been more humor to be found in the proceedings if our title character had stayed in the fictional country of Wadiya throughout the entire film. You see, the first act of The Dictator is easily its strongest: watching Cohen play Aladeen, a bumbling, airheaded authoritarian leader is a pure riot, and his interactions with the lower officials and other subordinates are a hoot most of the time. I couldn't stop laughing during an explanation of the changes that the tyrant made to the Wadiyan dictionary (using his own name). A plot is hatched to remove Aladeen from his leadership post by replacing him with his body double. This is where things start going downhill: the film makes several clearly desperate attempts at milking humor from the situations involving Aladeen's replacement (who's essentially braindead), but they don't work. There's a particularly bad scene in which the guy is placed in a room full of subservient females who are ready to give him whatever he wants; timing is the most important thing in comedies, and the timing in this scene couldn't be more off. It comes across as awkward and uncomfortable, but not humorous. Later on, there's a scene that has "throwaway" written all over it, as Aladeen starts removing objects from his pocket in order to weigh less - as this scene unfolded, I kept thinking "Well, they obviously have to exploit this opportunity. He has to pull something completely scandalous out of one of his pockets, and it has to be either something sexual or something horribly offensive." No such luck.

But without a doubt, the worst offender in The Dictator is the storyline involving the "romance" between Aladeen and Zoey (Anna Faris). Faris plays it with the exaggerated effervescence that she has brought to oodles of prior other comedies she's been in. But I don't think there's a single actress out there with the ability to make up for the script's annoying, screeching insistence in turning her into the stereotype of an ultraliberal New Yorker. Perhaps Zoey would've been funny as a stand-alone character in a film that aimed to satirize these people who try super hard to portray themselves as being "totally open-minded" (and there's no doubt that you could make a great modern satire about that). Unfortunately, pairing Zoey with Aladeen romantically (rather than as antagonists) has a detrimental effect on the film's tone, because Zoey simply becomes a caricature who, throughout the entire movie, conveniently adjusts her feelings towards Aladeen whenever the plot requires her to do it, regardless of how completely against her beliefs Aladeen's behavior may be. These situations should've been hilarious (or, at the very least, enjoyable due to the irony of it all), but unfortunately, that never registers. The Dictator's short running time would've benefited greatly from following Borat's skit-like, episodic approach of having the main character get into all sorts of out-of-this-world situations with the New Yorkers he met along the way, rather than wasting a colossal amount of time on the misfire that is the film's romantic thread.

I continue to appreciate the direction in which Cohen aims his satirical arrows, but I'm deeply underwhelmed by the fact that this movie's just lacking that extra pizzazz that made the audiences with whom I watched Borat and Bruno erupt in simultaneous laughter and outrage. The climactic speech makes Cohen's stance on American "democracy" completely clear (yet one can't be faulted for imagining that it'll likely go over a lot of people's heads), and I'd call it a solid conclusion to Cohen's latest satire, were it not punctuated by the resolution of the Aladeen/Zoey lovefest, which should've never been a part of the movie in the first place. Call me soulless or unromantic or sadistic, but I'd much prefer to get an update on how Borat and Luenell are doing. What I can ultimately tell you about The Dictator is that it's occasionally funny, and that I may have even given it a passing grade had it been in someone other than Cohen's hands, but we all have expectations, and knowing the type of brilliantly offensive material that we already know he's capable of, it feels like his latest effort falls a bit short of that.

5/10