The Dictator.

Ridiculous ruler....Sacha Baron Cohen as Admiral General Hafez Aladeen,

It's hard to know what to expect when you go and see a Sacha Baron Cohen movie. You know it will be funny and offensive and that's exactly what The Dictator is - funny and offensive. It's a little less disrespectful than Borat but still as crude. Baron Cohen's latest bane is Admiral General Hafez Aladeen, a dumb and anti-Western dictator who rules the fictional state of Wadiya. He's stupid and similar to the late Colonel Gaddafi, in some ways and he works on nuclear weapons. The jokes are hilarious, with culture clashes and some great one-liners, my favourite scene is when Aladeen and Nadal, a 'friend' of his (Jason Mantzoukas) are playing 'tourists' in a helicopter. Within the first five seconds of the film appearing on the screen the audience are laughing. The words: in loving memory of Kim Jong-il appear on screen. 


The plot is very wobbly and is just a vehicle for the jokes. Aladeen is building nuclear weapons and if he doesn't appear at the United Nations in New York then the UN will take military action on the Admiral General. So naturally he travels on a state visit to America. Unfortunately, his traitorous uncle, Tamir (played by an uncomfortable-looking Ben Kingsley)  has an assassin to take care of him. The Admiral General escapes and seeks sanctum at a vegetarian grocery store, run by a very unattractive Anna Faris. It's crude, rude, a bit more fictional than Borat but will have the audience laughing all the same.




4/5