Review of The Dictator (2012) by Lasttimeisaw — 11 Jun 2012

It's Euro-Cup time now, so there is a famine in the cinemas, maybe one should not go to cinema twice a week these days (I have already watched PROMETHEUS 2012), the only possibilities are this one or SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (2012), so hectoring by the latter's horrid reviews, a satire comedy sounds like a more safe choice between these two.

Deceiving by its trailer, and Instead of being a political satire, the film is no more than a crass sketch comedy, with a plentiful supply of self-conscious jokes about masturbation, human excrement, racism, sexism, gay culture, terrorism, a mixed-bag of all the possible sought-after topics. But how is the effect?

Though in my memories, I didn't perceive BORAT! (2006, a 5/10) as a deserving accomplishment, but by comparison, THE DICTATOR even has less virtue and has no difference with other annually cranked-out Hollywood trashy comedies, which more or less are able to generate some laughters but one would never give a second-thought after leaving the cinema, lest feel repellent even thinking about the source material or simply erase it from the memory. THE DICTATOR marked the third time Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles work in unison (after BORAT! and BRUNO 2009, which I skipped), but the pith of it is all in its trailer, I wonder, when will Hollywood ever deliver another comedy without meddling too much with filthiness, sometimes audience needs to be innovated instead of being pondered to.