Or, Borat If He Had Power

Fresh from the latest cinema trip, let's take a look at the latest Sacha Baron Cohen vehicle, The Dictator (not sure if I mentioned it in a previous blog but my Dark Shadows post will be after this one)

Admiral General Albadeen (Cohen), supreme leader of Wadiya, travels to the UN headquarters in New York to address the proposed intervention of outside forces hoping to uncover proof that he has nuclear weapons. His uncle, Tamir (Ben Kingsley) uses this as means of getting him out of the way and having democracy installed in Wadiya so that he is free to sell the country's oil reserves. Desperate to reclaim his power, he is offered a job by an activist named Zoey (Anna Faris) and intends to use that to sneak his way back into his position. 

(From here on out, there will be minor spoilers).

Of the four films in which Sacha has been the lead actor, this is the one that I enjoyed the most. While Ali G Indahouse didn't kick off the fake-documentary style shared by Borat and Bruno, this film's uniqueness comes from the fact that this is the first leading role for Sacha that isn't based off a character from Da Ali G Show, though Albadeen does have traits of both Borat (cultural misunderstandings, disrespect of women and Jewish people) and Bruno (more obsessed with pop culture than what he's actually supposed to be doing, arrogance).

And to be honest, I actually enjoyed this more than the other films. Not that any of them are bad, but I think this one works because Sacha has to rely on a supporting cast, since it's not in the fake-documentary style mentioned above and the fact that while it was great for Borat, it was uneven for Bruno and the more often you do it, the quicker people catch on (which is why some if not all of his previous characters have been retired).

Sacha himself is pretty how much how you would expect: able to dominate the screen with a few words or gestures and has great comedic timing. If there's one character-type Sacha knows how to do well, it's the foreigner-who-doesn't-understand-how-he's-offending-people character and being a dictator concerned with petty things like whether or not the top of a missile is pointy or round certainly would not know how to talk to people in a civilised manner. There is something off about this character though, but I'll get to that in a bit.

The biggest surprise here is the casting of Anna Faris. Usually known for playing ditzes (the Scary Movie series), idiots (Lost In Translation) or ditzy idiots (probably The House Bunny, I don't know, I haven't seen it, but based on the plot, I'm guessing so and for that, The House Bunny can piss off to Hell), she's actually playing someone who's competent and smart. Hell, she's even the straight man here to Sacha's character! Granted, 99% percent of the remaining cast are the straight man in comparison to Sacha, but hers is the other character the movie focus' on as she struggles to maintain her store. Also, despite having black hair in the first two Scary Movies and May, she's nearly unrecognizable due to her hair style. If it weren't for those eyes, I wouldn't have picked it up straight away, since I walked in not knowing who else was in the movie. Despite the fact that May is one of my top 100 films, this may be her best role to date, due to the character's general good nature and for lack of stupidity.

There's not much to say about the other supporting characters, not that any of them are bad. Ben Kingsley adds yet another villain role to his resume but it has to be more dignified than The Love Guru, and he's pretty good.

Jason Mantzoukas pulls off some of the funniest scenes of the movie, like when he's asking Albadeen if the “educational films” he's seen about bombs involves Daffy Duck. Though there's something about him that I'll get to later too...

Lastly, for all ten minutes he's on screen for, John C. Reilly is pretty funny as an easily crestfallen assassin and his big scene is one of the highlights, with the banter between him and Sacha very witty. It involves torture implements and how unimpressed Albadeen is, since they're so primitive compared to what he's seen.

If the movie has any problems, it's with the character development of Albadeen. Being a comedy, and with him being a villain protagonist, he naturally has to change for the better. So, he starts mellowing out, starts dating Zoey, and it's just too quick for it to be believable. I mean, he's stranded in New York for a few days but suddenly, he's treating this one woman with care and respect? Earlier in the movie, he's having sex with Megan Fox, takes a Polaroid and puts it on a wall amongst hundreds of others, like it's a trophy wall. While this scene does hint that he doesn't just want random flings, that doesn't change the fact that he's largely prejudiced towards women and other religions. These things don't take days to change, so I'm a little put off by this “hey presto chango!” mentality the movie radiates.

Also Jason's character, Nadal. Now, the character is very funny and serves as the secondary straight man, for the scenes in which Albadeen is trying to get back into power. In Wadiya, Nadal was the head of the team working on the nuclear weapons, until he was “executed” (in reality, anyone sent for execution is actually sent to America as part of the resistance group) and he's actually enjoying his new life in America, to a point. He agrees to get Albadeen back into power if he can have his old job back. I took that as a sign that wasn't exactly satisfied with his work. Fine, fair enough. But the lengths he goes to, his obsession with it, he almost becomes a villain, especially when he talks about not wanting Wadiya to become a democracy. Not sure if the movie was meant to say he didn't want it because the country's oil reserves would be drained dry or because he actually believes in some of the policies Albadeen enforces.

Despite all that, the movie is enjoyable, with great satire at the expense of the American government and Sacha's considerable talent. Also, I have to say, I liked what they did for the music. They take well known songs like Everybody Hurts but translate the words into another language. It worked for me, and it was fun guessing which song they were using. 3.5/5