MOVIE REVIEW: It's A Crime If You Don't Laugh At The Dictator

There's a long proud tradition of comedians skewering fascism and despots in general, and "The Dictator" is another grand chapter in this history. It certainly isn't easy to poke fun at such serious issues that we are still wrestling with and continually dominate our headlines, but the movie not only strikes just the right tone, it makes it look easy. No one, from the right or left, (or democracy or otherwise) is safe from its spot-on, withering satire.

"The Dictator" gets started right away, as the film begins with a photo of the late North Korean dictator with a caption reading "In Loving Memory of Kim Jong-il." We then meet the despotic, brutal tyrant Aladeen (hilariously played by Sacha Baron Cohen) of the fictional country of Wadiya. You soon learn he starves his people while he lives in the lap of luxury surrounded by beautiful female bodyguards, and orders anyone who disagrees with him killed. Oh, and he's working on developing nuclear weapons.

When he's forced to travel to America to give a speech at the U.N., he discovers his uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley) has betrayed him and hired an assassin to kill him, mainly so he can open the country's oil fields to foreign companies. When his beard is cut off and he escapes, he finds that no one recognizes him and he must try to find a way to save his beloved country from democracy.

On the way, he is mistaken for a refugee by a liberal activist named Zoey (it's good to see an actually funny Anna Faris again), who offers him a job at her co-op, which just so happens to be catering the U.N. event where a new constitution will be signed. His actions on her behalf are motivated by his own self-interest, then less so.

While all the jokes are hilarious, they're definitely not for everyone. There's the usual gross-out gags, but if you're turned off by torture and masturbation jokes, or don't think you can handle texting inside a womb during a graphic birth scene, then you may want to give this one a miss. But be warned: as mentioned before, no one is safe. Whatever your politics, be prepared to laugh at yourself as well as the movie.

And now that Sacha Baron Cohen is too famous to do another Borat or Brüno, it's a relief that we can still expect such great things nonetheless.

Grade: A