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Dictator, The (15)

Dictator, The (15)

Comedy

The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.


The critical consensus

The Dictator is a comedian’s film, and almost every line in the script is either a punchline or a set-up. Not all of them are particularly amusing, but most are invigoratingly offensive in one way or another, and there are a handful of moments that deserve to endure.

***(*)(*)Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 11/05/2012

The Dictator isn't going to win awards and it isn't as hip as Borat. Big goofy outrageous laughs is what it has to offer.

****(*)Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 10/05/2012

There's little to mull over with this one. And, unlike Borat and Brüno, the laughs just ain't there.

**(*)(*)(*)David Jenkins, Little White Lies, 11/05/2012

Cohen fans will still belly-laugh and there are moments of solid satire, but for the most part The Dictator feels a mite stale.

***(*)(*)Vincent Renwick, The List, 11/05/2012

Outrageous, outlandish and overboard, The Dictator will satisfy Cohen’s army of fans. But it never feels as funny, full-on or fresh as Borat and Brüno.

***(*)(*)James Mottram, Total Film, 11/05/2012

What could have been a deft satire is more interested in juvenile scatology, and he does love to run a joke into the ground.

Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 13/05/2012

Formulaic, yet scrappy, and extremely funny in fits and starts, General Aladeen is the first of Cohen comic creations to get a better vehicle than it probably deserves.

***(*)(*)Damon Wise, Empire Online, 14/05/2012

Consistently amusing, with a several laugh-out-loud set-pieces, including a classic scene aboard a tourist helicopter over Manhattan, the picture makes for a riotous and inspired comedy that doesn’t outstay its welcome at a tight 84 minutes long.

*****Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 16/05/2012

The Dictator may not be the great comic masterwork it perhaps should have been, but it’s a reminder that when Baron Cohen does land comedic blows, few people can touch him.

***(*)(*)The Scotsman, 17/05/2012

In this part of the cinema universe, however, we hold to the quaint notion that if you pays your money for a comedy it should do more than make you smile occasionally. If that's being dictatorial, tough.

**(*)(*)(*)Alison Rowat, The Herald, 17/05/2012

As a turn it's much funnier than Brüno, though the comedy is less inventive than Borat.

***(*)(*)Anthony Quinn, The Independent, 18/05/2012

Last week, Cohen appeared in character threatening the families of any movie critics who dared to say that his new film wasn’t a masterpiece. Today my family resides in a safehouse.

***(*)(*)David Edwards, Daily Record, 18/05/2012

The movie is full of jokes and they're scattered like a fistful of seeds sown by a frantic farm labourer. Some inevitably fall on stony ground. But as with Mel Brooks, it's the good scenes and lines that stick in the mind rather than the misfires.

Philip French, The Observer, 20/05/2012

Again and again, you marvel at what Baron Cohen is getting away with. It just goes to show that you can make a joke about the most offensive subject matter, so long as it's funny enough – and in The Dictator the jokes are very funny and very offensive indeed.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent, 20/05/2012


Features about Dictator, The (15)

Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator: Can the great buffoon do scripted comedy?

Robbie Collin, The Telegraph, 03/05/2012

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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