The Dictator

I was of the opinion that Sasha Baron Cohen’s glory days were over and that he was going to settle into a long, happy career doing eccentric bit-parts like those in Sweeney Todd and Hugo. But no, he still has the oomph to carry a film on his own, and it’s considerably better than Ali G in da House. He may have got progressively less original since the days of The Eleven O’Clock Show, but he’s still a very funny man. I had my doubts when I saw the posters of this film and read the plot summary, but the trailers made me think it would actually be worth seeing.

And it was. It was very, very funny. It may not have been very fresh, and the whiff of South Park and Team America was all over it – from the throwaway gags pushing the boundaries of taste to the moment where the whole film is glibly made to look like a sweeping political statement on America – but I still watch South Park and huge originality isn’t exactly necessary for something to be incredibly funny.

Baron-Cohen skewers everyone here, not just absurd dictatorships. Much of the comedy is fish-out-of-water humour about the dictator going unrecognised in New York, which allows not only extremist states to be a target of comedy, but silly idealist lefties. There are some brilliant comedy moments, not all of which were given away by the trailers, and the script sensibly allows for a human element, pathos and love – even if only to subvert it.

The bottom line is that Baron-Cohen remains funny. He may become less so soon – but for now he remains well worth the price of admission.