66%
87%
38%
58%
74%
91%
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 195
Fresh: 113 | Rotten: 82
Wildly uneven but consistently provocative, The Dictator is a decent entry in the poli-slapstick comedy genre.
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 16
Wildly uneven but consistently provocative, The Dictator is a decent entry in the poli-slapstick comedy genre.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 137,624
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The heroic story of a North African dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed. -- (C) Paramount
May 16, 2012 Wide
Aug 21, 2012
$59.6M
Paramount Pictures
All Critics (195) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (113) | Rotten (83) | DVD (1)
The film has a vicious edge that the Marx Brothers didn't have, and it's too low-minded to achieve their enchanting blend of anarchy and surrealism.
Now [Cohen is] turning material both fresh and rancid into tepid gruel.
On the laughmeter The Dictator is closer to Borat than to the misfired Bruno, which is to say it's funny for about half of its brisk 83 minutes.
Most of The Dictator had me neither laughing nor shocked, but just staring at the screen in anxious is-that-all-there-is? silence.
A bit scattershot and schticky, the film never quite settles into a consistent comic rhythm. Yet for fans of Baron Cohen's work there are plenty of moments of crass hilarity.
For the most part, the movie's rhythms feel slightly off -- there are long stretches without a laugh -- and there is a mean-spirited air to the whole thing.
Most of the film is fairly gentle in its political, social, and personal jabs. I kept looking for more bite. (Blu-ray edition)
This is Cohen in a lightweight mood, taking very few chances, instead relying on only mildly irreverant humor.
While [Sacha Baron Cohen's] latest, ultra-hyped effort The Dictator has its fair share of disgusting, gross-out moments, perhaps the biggest shock is that it actually has a decent story and engaging characters.
A missed opportunity of global proportions.
What's shocking is the movie's finale, in which Baron Cohen -- as usual, fully committed to his character -- delivers a diatribe that's a satirical version of Charlie Chaplin's famous speech in The Great Dictator.
It doesn't expose stupidity. That's what Cohen has done absolutely wonderfully in the past with his other characters. Now he's just acting stupid, with only some funny results.
By this time, even Eve Ensler probably would support a movie and TV comedy moratorium on the use of the word 'vagina.'
The danger for Baron Cohen is having made his name as a confrontational comedian but delivering something that, while occasionally provocative, feels too conventional.
Both the laughter and the satire had crawled off and quietly died.
A weapon of mass derision.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it has all these crazy dictator jokes, which are funny but when it tries to be a movie, it fails miserably. You don't buy any of it.
While acknowledging that some of the film's individual scenes are quite funny, the overarching story needed work.
the movie feels lazy and middlebrow, without even the mockumentary format of Borat to disguise things.
As a supporting actor Cohen is okay, but as the star of his vanity projects he is excruciating
This is basically Coming to America with more gross-out gags.
Borat cut deep, The Dictator couldn't incise bread.
He very lovingly pokes fun at us like a favorite uncle who wants you to pull his finger.
Where most of Cohen's films exploit non-actors falling for his ruse, this dictator has been banished to one of those (regrettable and forgettable) SNL movies...
The whole love story shackles the movie, forcing it to ultimately and ruinously fit into the strict confines of the rom-com genre, whereas Cohen has always been at his best, like any rubber chicken, when allowed to be free range.
Brilliant! Loved it so much, is so good but so evil. This is his best film.
August 10, 2012Super Reviewer
A comedy that is the epitome of stereotypes.A Good laughing movie! The Dictator is satire, it is a movie making fun of the real world, and if you let it be, it makes you aware (while laughing) at the racist thoughts and stereotypes ordinary people have everyday. Yes, it has its strange and explicit scenes, but overall,
August 9, 2012
Super Reviewer
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