Review of The Dictator

'The Dictator' is a 2012 comedy film co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen and directed by Larry Charles. Baron Cohan stars as Admiral General Aladeen, a dictator from the fictional North African country of the Republic of Wadiya. He stars alongside Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris. Unlike Baron Cohen's previous films of this type ('Borat' and 'Bruno') this one was completely scripted.


The film isn't bad, it's definitely much better than 'Borat' (I haven't seen 'Bruno'). The performances in this movie are alright, with the exception of Sacha Baron Cohen, the whole casts performs at an average level, I think this may be a result of the script, because for example, Ben Kingley, is an amazing actor and we've seen it before when amazing actors don't get the screen time they deserve. Even Anna Faris is a good actress, and although she has a good amount of screen time, she even given a decent amount of material that really shows her skill as an actress. The story is nothing special, but with this type of film it never is. It is definitely more funny if you have a knowledge of the current political situation, I'm not saying if you don't then you shouldn't go see it, because there is still plenty of laughs to be had. 


The comedy is consistent throughout, you're never left for longer than a minute without something to laugh at. To be quite honest, there are very few laughs that are absolutely hilarious, that keep you laughing for ages afterwords (by a few, I mean that there are some really funny moments that shock the audience). The way it works in this film is that when it counts, it's really funny, there's lots of parts you can giggle at, but there are some scenes that catch you off guard and you find yourself laughing out loud in the cinema. One of the great things about this movie is that it pushes the boundaries of comedy, by this I mean that the whole concept of a comedy about a dictator and terrorism is very risky with the sort of political climate we have today. They even make jokes about Kim Jong-il and Osama Bin Laden, which is funny because they're names that are still fresh in our minds, but it's risky because there are a lot of people that would consider this material inappropriate or offensive. Sacha Baron Cohen has always been one to push the boundaries of his films, all the films he makes of this style, offend somebody, somewhere, and that's what people like about them, they know that if they go see his films, they're going to see some comedic material that others would consider too risky to joke about. 


That's all I want to say about this film, because I don't want to spoil it, I'd highly recommend going to see it, it may not be strong on the story side of things, but it's funny, it's really funny. It should do well this year because apart from '21 Jump Street', it doesn't have that much competition, especially with 'American Reunion' being a disappointment to most. I'm going to give 'The Dictator' a 7.5/10.


So go see it! You'll laugh!