Holy heck. Do you guys remember when I was the film reviewer for TYCP? One of my reviews never got published when I stopped getting any correspondence from the editor of the site. I have uncovered this long-lost review and present it to you now, unedited, in its original form. Sacha Baron Cohen returns to the big screen in another fish out of water improv-heavy comedy called The Dictator. Baron Cohen is Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of Wadiya, an oil-rich nation in Africa with no international trade. When Aladeen announces his decision to enrich uranium for nuclear energy, the United Nations gives him a five day window to visit America for negotiations or face international military action.
The rest of the film plays out like you would expect from Sacha Baron Cohen at this point. After a montage of culture-establishing tableaus, the dictator is whisked away to America where he faces a challenge and teams up with a wacky cast of characters to complete his goal. Every problem with The Dictator stems from this framework. He's used it twice before to better effect. The result is not bad. It's just nothing new from him besides the title character.
The Dictator succeeds in making the audience laugh. The outlandish stunts and gags might not hit with everyone every time, but everyone will find something to laugh at in this movie. My favorite recurring gag is Wadiyan covers of recognizable songs like "Everybody Hurts" and "Beware of the Boy." The songs work in the context of the scenes but also poke fun at the intrusion of Top 40 songs in big budget movies just to have the songs on the soundtrack. You can't help but notice the new lyrics and laugh.
Baron Cohen's satire is focused on international relations, feminism, and the green movement rather than American culture this time around and it hits hard. Anna Farris as Zoey suffers the brunt of the abuse. She plays an unshaved political activist with a close crop haircut who hires refugees to work in her organic green market with a zero tolerance policy for racism. The audience is tricked into sympathizing with her because of Aladeen's abuse until she quickly reveals that she is every bit as foolish as he claimed in their first scene together.
A big issue in The Dictator is the Aladeen knows all device. Half of the characters in the film claim he's a complete idiot. The other half thinks he's a genius. There is no consistency in his actions other than physicality, voice, and overt racism.
Sacha Baron Cohen, as a writer, waffles on the creation of every character. Character traits shift from scene to scene just to sell a joke. The only part of a character that sticks is the first impression. For example, when you meet a hired southern security guard who says he hates Admiral General Aladeen, you're not going to get anything more out of the character. There is no depth to any character even when Baron Cohen tries to convince you someone is evolving. No one does.
For all the laughs, The Dictator lacks a real narrative thrust. It plays like a sketch comedy show rather than a film. Side plots are picked up and dropped at will, but they have no impact on the main story. The result is a comedy movie that overstays its welcome despite only being 82 minutes long.
Fans of Borat and Bruno will find enough of that Sacha Baron Cohen style to justify a trip to the movie theater. Everyone else should just wait for the DVD. That way, you can watch it in bits and pieces and skip over any scenes that don't make you laugh right away.
Rating: 4/10