The Dictator doesn't have the same charm as Borat, and it's way below Charles Chaplin's Great Dictator in scope of being funny and important in society, but still it's interesting to watch. I personally thought this movie was a giant heap of Aladeen. The movie starts out a back story of Admiral General Aladeen (Sasha Baron Cohen) and how he became the leader of the small North African nation of Wadiya. For years Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen been treating his people as a lewd, childish, misogynous, anti-democracy and antisemitic who refuses to allow Wadiyan oil to be sold internationally and is secretly working on developing nuclear weapons. He has been getting help from his Uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) on running the day on day operations of the country while Tamir is secretly trying to overthrow him so Wadiya can be open for the world oil companies. When the U.N calls for him to speak to the UN Headquarters in New York City, Admiral General Aladeen goes to the mock them, for only to have himself kidnapped by Clayton (John C. Reilly), a hit-man hired by his uncle to kill him. Aladeen escapes after Clayton accidentally burns himself to death, but his huge beard has been shaved off by Clayton, making him practically unrecognizable, while Tamir sports a double as Aladeen to the public. Yeah, I know, just go with it. He meets, boyish-looking, hairy arm-pitted, activist Zoey (Anna Faris), at a Anti-Aladeen rally and they befriend each other while he hides under the name of Allison Burgers. Zoey offers Aladeen a job at her grocery store who is catering the event in which his double is staying. At first, he get the job only to get pass the security, but in later scenes it doesn't really play a factor into his plans. He encounters Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), a exile Nuclear scientist whom working at Apple type store. I really like Jason Mantzoukas, his straight man approach works great against the out-there Aladeen character. Nadal helps Aladeen only if he can regain his old job as a nuclear scientist. There are two versions of this scene, the part where he meets Nadal. In an alternative scene, Aladeen approaches Nadal at work and one in a bar type restaurant. Slowly Aladeen becomes to warm up to both Nadal and Zoey, which turns the character around and question if he should still allow Wadiya to be under a dictatorship. There is a unrated cut of The Dictator runs an additional 15 minutes from its original 83-minute theatrical version. Much of the added material is additional sexual content and dialogue. There is a scene following Aladeen falling asleep in the back of the store where one of his bodyguards, Etra, tries to kill him by beating him with her enlarged breast. The film has a lot of gross out humor that doesn't work, and much of it wasn't really need for the plot. The movie can also be too offensive to some people. this movie is making fun of all racist stereotypes. If anyone actually thinks that all Muslims are like that, they are really stupid. The rapes jokes were really not that funny. I found the film a bit too juvenile at times. Sasha Baron Cohen sort of had his finger on the cultural pulse in terms of knowing which buttons to push, in order to criticize the attitudes and beliefs of people. I think the problem was, that Aladeen had too many funny things to do and say throughout the movie, so that after half an hour you're so familiar with the comedy, he says than you might grin and chuckle and want to laugh, but you can't because deep down you expected it. Iwill give him that he's a phenomenal actor, a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to developing a character; however, the jokes was already stale because he play that part in Borat. The jokes feel like unused Borat jokes. What made Borat so funny was that the people in that movie don't know it's fake. They actually think it's real. He's that kind of comedian. In this, you know it's not real. You know, it's a similar character to Borat and audience can be disappointed because it's not Borat type of material in humor. So it's too bad that The Dictator features far more gross out gags, than his usual dark, satirical comedy, that could have made it a smart film. Still there is lots of obscenities, and his speech in the end, parody Charles Chaplin in the Great Dictator, but Sacha Baron Cohen was overshadowing everyone and not giving any room for anyone else to be funny. It's still watchable. "The Dictator" has offensive, dirty, and everything you've come to expect from a Sacha Baron Cohen movie and that somewhat works.
Review of The Dictator
