Duration: 83 min.
Rating stars: 6.6 out of 10 Stars.
Released date: 16 May 2012 (USA).
Director: Larry Charles.
Written by : Sacha Baron Cohen , Alec Berg.
Movie story:
The story of a dictator who spends his life preventing democracy would never come to his country.
Movie review:
The North African Republic of Wadiya is ruled by an eccentric and oppressive leader named Hafez Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen), a childish, lecherous, misogynous, anti-western and antisemitic despot who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, refuses to allow Wadiyan oil to be sold internationally and is working on developing nuclear weapons.
While on a trip to New York to talk the UN out of bombing his country off of the map, Aladeen is betrayed by Tamir (Kingsley), his closest advisor who wishes to gain control of Wadiya, turn it into a democracy and sell its oil to the highest bidder,he is kidnapped by Clayton (John C. Reilly), a hitman hired by Tamir . Tamir then replaces Aladeen with a mentally-challenged political decoy named Efawadh, whom he intends to manipulate into signing a document democratizing Wadiya and opening the country's oil fields for business. Aladeen escapes after Clayton accidentally burns himself to death, but his huge beard has been shaved off by Clayton, making him practically unrecognizable.
He falls in love with his polar opposite; a liberal, tree-hugging, democracy-loving feminist named Zoe (Faris) , who offers him a job at her alternative lifestyle co-op. Aladeen refuses the offer and travels to New York's "Little Wadiya", located near the Marcy Avenue station, which is populated by refugees from his country. There, he encounters "Nuclear" Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons program and head procurer of women, whom Aladeen thought he had previously executed. Nadal explains that Wadiyan rebels infiltrated his intelligence unit, sending into exile all the people he had ordered to be executed.
Wanting his old job back, Nadal promises to help Aladeen thwart Tamir's plot and regain his position as 'rightful' dictator, on condition that Aladeen makes him head of Wadiya's W.M.D. program again. Aladeen agrees and accepts Zoey's job offer, as she is catering at the hotel where the signing is to occur.
Aladeen's relationship with Zoey becomes strained after he reveals his true self. After acquiring a new beard taken from a corpse, Aladeen infiltrates the hotel and incapacitates Efawadh. At the signing ceremony, he tears up Tamir's document in front of the UN delegation, and holds an impassioned speech praising the virtues of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to current issues within the United States, Tamir attempts to assassinate him but Efawadh jumps in front of the bullet.
A year later, Wadiya holds its first democratic elections, although they are rigged in favor of Aladeen. Afterwards, he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she crushes a glass and reveals herself to be Jewish.
The Dictator is satire, it is a movie making fun of the real world, and if you let it be, it makes you aware (while laughing) at the racist thoughts and stereotypes ordinary people have everyday. Yes, it has its strange and explicit scenes, but overall, it has substance and it is very funny.
Reviewed by: Riham Adel