I went to see the film half-expecting a mix of Sacha Baron Cohen’s eponymous characters Borat and Bruno but I thought it was tamer and more solid. The Dictator tells the story of Admiral General Aladeen ruling the North African country of “Wadiya” with an iron fist. He was invited to travel to New York to address the United Nations that led to his kidnapping plotted by his right hand (Ben Kingsley.) Replaced by a dim-witted impostor, the deposed leader device a plan to reclaim his power through the help of Zoe (Anna Faris), a very liberal militant whose appearance in the film balanced out the gross hilarity of Baron Cohen’s character.
The film isn’t as vulgar as Bruno but it has some cringe-worthy scenes that may offend the sensibility of some people but ninety percent of it was hella funny. The direct hit towards the American culture and politics made it even funnier that it almost feel like an intelligent film, only it is not. It was slapstick but relevant, fearless but not jaw dropping at all. With a very touchy topic such as democracy, you might think that Sacha and director Larry Charles went a bit too far as to make fun of a lot of relevant issues that recently transpired but they were able to transition everything into something that is too hilarious to even get a serious thought from its audience.