REVIEW OF THE DICTATOR

About The Movie:

For forty
years, the North African Republic of Wadiya has been ruled by
Admiral General Hafez Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen),
a lecherous, anti-western and antisemitic despot
who surrounds himself with female bodyguards and
is working on developing nuclear weapons.
After the United Nations Security Council resolves
to intervene militarily, Aladeen travels to the UN Headquarters in New York City to
address the council. Shortly after arriving, he is kidnapped by a hit-man
Clayton (John C. Reilly) hired by his traitorous uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley).
Tamir then replaces Aladeen with a political decoy named
Efawadh, who he can manipulate into signing a document democratizing Wadiya
and opening the country's oil fields for business. Aladeen escapes, but his beard
has been shaved off by Clayton, making him practically unrecognizable. He
encounters activist Zoey (Anna Farris), who offers him a job at her alternative
lifestyle co-op. Aladeen refuses the offer and travels to New York's
"Little Wadiya", where he encounters Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas),
the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons program, whom Aladeen thought he
had previously had executed.

Wanting his old job back, Nadal
promises to help reinstate Aladeen as dictator on condition that he make him
head of Wadiya's weapons program again. Aladeen then accepts Zoey's job offer,
as Zoey's employees have access to the hotel where the signing ceremony is to
take place. After acquiring a new beard taken from a corpse, Aladeen
infiltrates the hotel and incapacitates his double. At the signing ceremony, he
tears up Tamir's document in front of the UN delegation, and holds an
impassioned speech in favor of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to
current conditions in the USA. However, upon seeing Zoey in the room, he
declares his love for her and, knowing Zoey's strongly-held views, vows to
democratize his country, but not on totally capitalistic terms.

A year later, Wadiya holds its first
democratic elections, although they are rigged in favor of Aladeen. Afterwards,
he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she crushes a glass and reveals herself to be Jewish.

What Is Good About The Movie:

That which
does not kill us only makes us laugh.

That seems to be the governing principle in this outrageously
offensive, but ridiculously funny, effort from agent provocateur Sacha Baron
Cohen.

What Is Bad About The Movie:

I didn't find anything bad with the movie because I saw it for what 

it was (silly and off the wall).

Overall Grade:

B