The Dictator (2012)

dir: Larry Charles

The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. (IMDb)

Cast:

michuk rated The Dictator

5 stars

dana-stevens-slate added a review of The Dictator

The conventional meet-cute love story at the center of The Dictator feels like a bizarre concession to some nonexistent demographic that prefers its sick black comedy with a side of human... Read the review

dana-stevens-slate rated The Dictator

4 stars

joe-morgenstern added a review of The Dictator

Sacha Baron Cohen's tosses off some sensationally funny stuff before descending into a rat-a-tat rhythm of random insult and ritual vulgarity. Read the review

joe-morgenstern rated The Dictator

4 stars

marjorie-baumgarten added a review of The Dictator

A climactic speech on the lessons Western democracy might learn from Middle Eastern despotism offers a few moments of pure brilliance. I'd say that speech is worth the price of admission ... Read the review

marjorie-baumgarten rated The Dictator

5 stars

peter-travers added a review of The Dictator

The Dictator leaves you laughing helplessly. It starts at outrageous and rockets on from there. Screw the occasional sputter. Read the review

peter-travers rated The Dictator

7 stars

andrew-ohehir added a review of The Dictator

Although the character of Aladeen seems awfully predictable by Baron Cohen standards, the movie itself veers from one hilarious, absurd and patently offensive setup to the next. Read the review

andrew-ohehir rated The Dictator

7 stars

david-edelstein-new-york-magaz added a review of The Dictator

The good news is that The Dictator is a loose and silly and occasionally exhilarating political farce in the tradition of Chaplin's The Great Dictator (obviously) and the Marx Brothers' a... Read the review

david-edelstein-new-york-magaz rated The Dictator

7 stars

steven-rea added a review of The Dictator

Mixes its high and low comedy with surprising success. Read the review

steven-rea rated The Dictator

8 stars

peter-rainer-christian-science added a review of The Dictator

If Baron Cohen is going to continue making scripted comedies, he needs to work with directors far less slapdash than Larry Charles. He can be one of the funniest people on the planet, but... Read the review

peter-rainer-christian-science rated The Dictator

8 stars

jr-jones added a review of The Dictator

Cohen probably thinks he's Charlie Chaplin lampooning Hitler, but of course Hitler was still on top of the world when "The Great Dictator" came out in 1940; Cohen is actually Chaplin's an... Read the review

jr-jones rated The Dictator

3 stars

ao-scott added a review of The Dictator

That potential is mostly squandered in The Dictator, which gestures halfheartedly toward topicality and, with equal lack of conviction, toward pure, anarchic silliness. Read the review