The Dictator (Review)

I saw the ‘extended’ version. Trust me, you don’t need to see the extended version.

You can’t really expect a film that opens with ‘In Memory of Kim Jong-Il’ to be even remotely serious – especially from the director and star of Borat and Bruno. But The Director somehow manages to set the bar even lower than you could possibly expect. Gone is the nail-biting quasi-reality provided by the gormless Borat and the staged improvisation of Bruno, The Dictator is scripted from go to whoa, and while it still manages more laughs than most comedies released this year it lacks any real edge or danger.

Sacha Baron Cohen (SBC) might be the most fearless and creative acting talent operating today, but take away the ‘surprise’ element of placing him amid an unknowing public and he is Leslie Nielson, a rapid fire comedian with a gift for delivering hilarious but instantly forgettable gags.

As self-titled Supreme Leader of the fictional Wadiya, Aladeen, SBC gets to go to town in a role that requires him to be egotistical, rash, insane and proudly dictatorial. And stupid, most of all stupid. It’s Aladeen’s way or the highway, with anyone daring to contradict his various rants and nonsensical ramblings – even with arguments laced with common sense – sentenced summarily to ‘vanishment’ with a quick throat-cutting gesture.

Aladeen is called to front the United Nations to face accusations of preparing Weapons of Mass Destruction, with his primary fear prior to such an event being that he might be unable to keep a straight face. Unfortunately for Aladeen he is abducted before he can toy with the rest of the free world, left unbearded and marooned in the United States without any henchmen, heavies, hitmen or loyal cronies. Even his former 2IC (Ben Kingsley) seems to have moved on instantly with a replacement Aladeen.

The real Aladeen watches on with horror as his double is groomed to give a speech announcing Wadiya as a new, proud democracy – in a speech no doubt the polar opposite from the one planned. But having no allies aside from the idealistically hippyesque Zoe (Anna Faris) he faces a huge task in saving his beloved oppressed dictatorship from the scourge of electoral freedom…

The jokes in The Dictator fly thick, fast and mostly funny, with far more one liners and throwaways than devotees of Bruno/Borat would expect. Where in those films the principal ‘comedy’ was created through unease and trepidation as to what might happen next, The Dictator has moments that wouldn’t be out of place in the Scary Movie series, albeit (mostly) funnier.

Even the inevitable gross out moments seem a little forced. Sure you’ll gasp when you realise that two characters are holding hands inside the birth canal of a woman about to give birth, and the glimpse of Baron Cohen’s ‘little Dictator’ as he lies spreadeagled across a window will raise an eyebrow, but it’s all carefully calculated and frankly uncreative stuff.

I mean really… Wadiya expect?… (Sorry. I’m so very sorry.)

Final Rating – 7 / 10. The highs of The Dictator aren’t as high, the lows not as uncomfortably low compared to SBC’s early films. And while they might try to compensate somewhat with an escalation in the number of attempted zingers which mostly hit the new lower mark, it must be noted that The Dictator is, for the most part *gasp* uncontroversial. Fans of SBC will no doubt like it, but this is hardly breathless water-cooler material.