The Dictator

The Dictator is Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film. The film premiered in 2009 and was the first of Cohen’s film to feature well-known actors like Anna Farris, Megan Fox, and John Reilly. To be honest, when Cohen’s first films, Borat and Bruno, were released, I thought they were documentaries. Say what you will. I honestly thought the films were real. I knew Cohen was an actor, but I thought the other characters were real people, not actors, especially in Bruno, in the scene when he is talking to the preacher about being gay. Imagine my shock when I watched Bruno and saw Anna Farris, among many others, starring in the film.

As far as The Dictator goes, it certainly wasn’t one of Cohen’s best comedies. The humor was very crude, but not in Cohen’s usual style. Cohen’s character, Aladeen, was not as funny as his previous ones. The ruthless dictator was hard to laugh at, and his romance with Farris’s character was hardly believable. Anna Farris, who played Zoey, was her usual self. The quirky, but cute, lead female role felt overdone, and I would have liked to have seen Farris step out of her comfort zone.

Overall, The Dictator failed to meet my expectations, but I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Cohen's previous works.