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THE DICTATOR Send This Review to a Friend
With Sacha Baron Cohen cutting up again there are bound to be some funny moments,
but there are not nearly enough of them in “The Dictator,” with direction credited to Larry Charles and Cohen writing the scattershot screenplay with three others—Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. The comedy borders on satire, with Cohen as an oppressive North African ruler who is to address the United Nations.
As expected, you can count on scatological humor, insults to a variety of
targets, slapstick and general grossness. The trouble is that many gags, sight or verbal,
fall flat. As a result, the film grows tedious, with only intermittent laughs and
the missed opportunity to provide more sophisticated satire instead of just crude
nose-thumbing.
Anna Faris plays Zoey, the woman who becomes key in the romantic life of
Dictator Aladeen, but she is little more than a foil. Ben Kingsley plays the dictator’s
rival for power. The plot involves a body double, played, of course, by Cohen—who
else?
If you are an easy laugher, you may find enough to enjoy. But this one is nowhere
near the laugh riot that the satirical “Borat” was. A Paramount Pictures release.
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