¨I love it when women go to school. It's like
seeing a monkey on roller-skates. It means nothing to them, but it's so
adorable for us. ¨
Like all of Sacha Baron Cohen`s comedies, The
Dictator is irreverent, offensive, and makes fun of pretty much every
stereotype out there. He had huge success with Borat, a film I found extremely
funny and smart, but the joke has gotten repetitive in his next films Bruno and
this one. There are some hilarious moments in The Dictator, but there is also a
lot of stupid and gross out jokes that made me want to stop watching at times.
Cohen has gotten to the point where he needs to explore new themes and stop
being so repetitive. He has proven he can make smart comedies with a sharp
satirical tone; he makes fun of the crazy stereotypes our society has and
despite making us laugh he also pulled our ears and made us think about our own
conduct and behavior. In Borat he used this satire to the extreme, but it kind
of has got lost in his latest films which try to entertain with cheaper and
dirtier laughs. There are some great moments that work really well in The
Dictator and had me laughing really hard so this movie wasn’t terrible either;
it did have some genuinely funny moments. Like in Borat and Bruno, Cohen got
Larry Charles to direct his latest film. I really was hoping this film would be
funnier because the trailers looked great and the publicity behind it by Cohen
was quite funny as well (who can forget the Ryan Seacrest incident during the
Oscars where Cohen showed up in character as the dictator and dumped ashes on
his suit?). I think it`s time for Sacha Baron Cohen to explore new themes
because he has proven in the past to be a great comedian.
Hafez Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen) is the oppressive
and wealthy dictator of the Republic of Wadiya (a made up Middle Eastern
country). He rules the country with a very fierce hand and oppresses everyone.
The film works as a satire of some of the Middle Eastern dictators we`ve all
heard about in the news and Cohen got his inspiration for his character from
all of them. But Cohen also makes fun of Americans and the stereotypes they
have of the Arabs as well; this is best expressed in John C. Reilly`s
character. Aladeen is forced to travel to the United States after being
threatened by the United Nations for having a nuclear program. Along with his advisor
and uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) they arrive in New York the day before the
meeting, but what Aladeen doesn’t know is that Tamir has other plans for him.
He has brought a Dictator look alike and is planning on killing Aladeen and
having the imitator take his place and announce that he will change the constitution
of his nation and bring back democracy to the people of Wadiya. Meanwhile Aladeen
is taken hostage by Reilly`s character who begins to torture him. The first thing
he does is cut off his supreme beard, but Aladeen manages to escape after a freak
accident. Aladeen arrives outside of the building but no one recognizes him as
his imitator has already taken his place. He is surrounded by protestors and
one of them, Zoey (Anna Faris), decides to help him and take him in. For the
first time in his life, Aladeen can`t have things his way and a series of
comedic events ensue.
There are several funny moments in this film
and some great lines, but for the most part the film goes way too far with
several gross out jokes. I really enjoyed the helicopter scene where Cohen`s
character is talking to his friend in his own language while two senior
Americans are sitting in front of them worried about what they are saying since
all they can make out are words like 911, Osama, Empire State Building, and
Statue of Liberty. This scene was hilarious and had me laughing really hard,
but it is about the only memorable moment I can rescue from the movie. There
are some funny lines like when the dictator is helping a woman give birth and
tells her the terrible news that the baby is a girl. The film makes fun of a
lot of these stereotypes where women aren`t considered very important in Arab
culture. Sacha Baron Cohen is very irreverent and offensive; he has no problem
in expressing what he thinks. He doesn’t hold back anything and says things how
they are. In my opinion this is what made him such a successful comedian, but
at the same time he can also take things to an extreme and gross fans out due
to the crude and explicitness of his jokes. I`d recommend this only to fans of
Cohen who aren't scared off by his humor.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario