Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Dictator
2012
**
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas, John C. Reilly, Bobby Lee, Sayed Badreya, Adeel Akhtar

In his third collaboration with Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen abandons the mockumentary style of Borat and Brüno, but otherwise sticks close to the formula. This is another scattershot comedy about an obnoxious foreigner who causes an outrage on the US soil. Now Cohen plays Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen who rules the African country of Wadiya with an iron fist. He is in the process of building a nuclear weapon, but the growing diplomatic pressure forces him to address the international community at the UN. The early moments in Wadiya are enjoyably offensive and genuinely funny, but once the story moves to New York the satire quickly loses its bite, and so does the beloved oppressor. Aladeen begins to soften up and even gets to have a romance with a hirsute feminist activist. In the second half, the jokes become desperately scatological and each new gag has less and less to do with the original premise.