The Dictator

It’s a shame Sacha Baron Cohen can’t stop telling the same kind of infantile jokes over and over and over in his films. Clearly, the guy has a wild imagination and plenty of talent. But The Dictator is a large-scale rehash of Borat and Bruno, and it’s not even as good as Bruno, which should say all you need to know. The stranger-in-a-strange-land motif seems to be Baron Cohen’s only storytelling device. Instead of a naive Kazakh reporter or an oblivious gay reporter, the character thrust upon the world is Admiral General Aladeen (Baron Cohen), who rules the African country of Wadiya with an iron fist. He’s the victim of a coup on a trip to address the United Nations in New York; this leads to an endless stream of sexist and racist jokes. It’s time for Baron Cohen to find a new gimmick.