I’ve been a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen since the Eleven O’Clock Show, where Ali G premiered and showed up a lot of posh people. When his power to make people say what they really think was combined with the genius of four Seinfeld writers, magic ensued in the form of Borat. After Borat and Bruno, Baron Cohen is now too famous to go undercover, and so he has to fall back on purely scripted situations. Unfortunately the script of The Dictator is patchy, revolting, and not funny enough.
The film follows Admiral General Aladeen (Baron Cohen), the all-powerful leader of the oil-rich African state of Wadiya. Just think of him as Borat, but in charge. This is a man who has everything he wants. He is also easier to upset than Stalin, executing all those who even look at him in the wrong way. On a trip to the United Nations in New York, his scheming uncle (Sir Ben Kingsley) tries to kill him and replaces him with a double. Alone and penniless, Aladeen is taken in by earnest health food store owner Zoey (Anna Faris).
The first half of the film set in Wadiya satirises Gaddafi and his ilk perfectly. The second half in New York, however, doesn’t live up to this good start. The plot is thin and badly sketched out, which would be fine if there were lots of good comic set pieces to keep us entertained. However, I can only think of one genuinely funny bit amongst a lot of disgusting ones. The only film I could relate it to is Freddy Got Fingered, but without the surreal heights of Tom Green’s magnum opus. Anyone who has seen Freddy Got Fingered knows that the comparison could never be complimentary.
I am shocked that the director Larry Charles and Baron Cohen’s co-writers Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer – the brains behind Seinfeld¸ Clerks: The Animated Series and Eurotrip (I’m not adding that to the list as a joke, it’s a hugely enjoyable film – Scotty doesn’t know!) could create something with so many poorly conceived moments.
There are some lines that really nail American’s attitude to the Middle East and the Middle East’s attitude to Israel, but not really enough to make it worth the ticket price.
