The Dictator review

This is the first movie that I watched this year that I can definitely describe as "love it or hate it". Personally, I loved it. I loved how the humor is blatantly offensive to anyone with common decency. I love how it's about as mature as a flash animation on Newgrounds. I love how so much effort went into this movie despite absolutely no part of it being deserving. But most of all, I love just how much fun the cast and crew had with it.

The movie stars Sacha Baron Cohen doing what he does best-playing an offensive middle eastern stereotype. In this case, he plays Admiral General Aladeen of the African nation of Wadiya. The movie begins with news clips being taken out of context to refer to Wadiya, and gives us an early taste of just how ridiculous this movie will be. Of note is that Wadiya just happens to be located in the exact same place as Eritrea-a dictatorship. That's right-they replaced a real life country with their silly fictional one. And people hate this movie!

Okay, maybe that wasn't fair. While most of the jokes hit, there are some that just go way to far and wind up being disgusting instead of funny. However, my biggest issue with this film is the love interest, Zoey. Zoey is a completely flat character. Her shtick-that she's some sort of feminist-environmentalist-left wing extremist simply isn't funny. It's annoying, and it's her only character trait. Funny that she's supposed to be a feminist, because she pretty much comes down do an exaggerated stereotype.

While Zoey made me like this film a lot less than I would have, I still must give credit where it's due. Baron Cohen makes things funny that seriously shouldn't be. The film does not take itself seriously. It doesn't even claim to be anything other than an outlet for the cast and crew to just shove immature joke after immature joke. And that's why I love it.

For this movie, I give a 7/10. I would recommend it, but be warned, it's not for everyone's tastes.