The Dictator

The Dictator is a Sacha Baron Cohen film directed by Larry Charles, the man behind movies such as Bruno and Borat. That makes it pretty evident that is intended to be a comedy film. And for fans of comedy, this movie does not disappoint. One of the funnier movies of the year, it certainly acheives what it set out to do.

The story revolves around Admiral General (must have done a tour in the Army before the Navy) Aladeen (Cohen) who is a dictator of the republic of Wadiya, a country in North Africa. He is portrayed as having nearly every antisocial trait that dictators supposedly have. However, his antics are forced to a head when he refuses to sell Wadiyan oil and is secretly developing nuclear weapons. The UN wakes up and resolves to intervene millitarily and our Dictator is forced to explain himself to the Security Council. However on his visit to New York, he is kidnapped, courtesy his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) and replaced by a decoy. Our dictator obviously redeems himself, going through life changing events such as being taught how to play with himself and other rib tickling incidents with Zoey (Anna Faris) and Nuclear Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas ).

The film picks off from one of the basic premises of comedy, putting a character into an environment he is not familiar with. He discovers things that we take to be obvious and in the process, generates laughter as we simply do not believe how anybody could not know the most trivial of things, leading to rib-tickling moments. The film picks the formula, sticks to it and does so very well.

The movie is certainly a bit uneven in terms of comic relief, with certain scenes inducing manic laughter, while others failing to raise even a chuckle. The soundtrack is peppy and certainly works well enough. While it isn't exactly the funniest movie of recent times, it has quite a few redeeming features.

The film has an actual storyline which is paid the requisite attention which is something that even most big banner movies these days have slaked off a bit on. The performances are brilliant, with Cohen being surprisingly funny and Ben Kingsley and Anna Faris being as delightfully understated as could be possible.

On the whole, the movie succeeds in what it set out to do. And while it isn't exactly a laugh-a-thon it is certainly a funny ride that will undoubtedly cheer you up.