Do you find rape, murder, oppression, and gross ignorance hilarious? The Dictator hopes you do.
His Excellency, Admiral General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen), supreme ruler of the Republic of Wadiya, is ordered to appear before “the jackals” who run the so-called United Nations. It seems Aladeen is intent on developing nuclear weapons and, of course, refuses to let UN inspectors in to see if he’s really about to do so. Unfortunately, the world’s last dictator has envious enemies around every corner, and a vile betrayal in New York City finds Aladeen on the streets, penniless, and unrecognizable. When a local activist (Anna Faris) takes him in out of pity, Aladeen is given the means to take back his regime, but will he still be the kind of kindly, iron-fist ruler his beloved oppressed people have come to pretend to love?
Most Americans know comedic actor Sacha Baron Cohen as the voice of King Julian in the Madagascar movies, but they may also know him as Ali G, Borat, Bruno, and a host of other egotists who are so distinctly different that they are virtually unrecognizable as the same person. Cohen is a brilliantly metamorphic comedian that is rarely ever caught breaking character, but one similarity that most of the characters demonstrate is a complete disregard for anyone outside of their closed-off little worlds. Where most of Cohen’s films exploit non-actors falling for his ruse, this dictator has been banished to one of those flash-in-the-pan SNL movies, the ones that probably sounded funnier on paper and where the filmmakers had more fun than their intended audience.
