Sacha Baron Cohen: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked
2. Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen - The Dictator (2012)
Taking on the subject of crazy despots would seem to be a no-brainer for Baron Cohen given his love of donning flamboyant clothing and dialling his accents up to eleven. Unfortunately, The Dictator didnt live up to its initial hype, instead proving to be a lacklustre affair despite landing a respectable cast including Ben Kingsley, John C Reilly and Anna Farris. The movie follows Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen as he travels to New York with the intention of addressing the UN. Of course things dont go to plan, leading to a series of kidnappings, misunderstandings and on-the-nose political commentary. Its very formulaic for a Baron Cohen film and this shows in its delivery, following a lot of familiar comedic beats, theres nothing much here that hasnt been done a thousand times before. As expected, The Dictator contains plenty of offensive material but it felt like more of a safe approach for such a seasoned purveyor of the controversial. While it garnered the level of complaints youd expect Baron Cohens output to draw, it was more muted outrage than effigy burning. The movie is not terrible by any means its just very mediocre and when it comes to making comedy, thats often a lot worse.
A pop culture mad writer from the North East who loves films, television and debating them with whoever will listen.
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