Sacha
As a result of Shear Madness selling so poorly at the Moore (for the entire month), I was able to finish my shift tonight with enough time to catch a bus up to Northgate, grab a quick sushi dinner, and catch a movie with Steven. On recommendation from my mom, we went to The Dictator which was as funny as advertised, but for sure much stupider than she led me to believe.
Sacha Baron Cohen is an extremely funny and talented performer. He may be the funniest working movie star out there today. The Dictator isn't his best work. It has a lot of really, really funny moments and Steve and I expelled more than our fair share of guffaws, but at its core it's not much of a screenplay and doesn't make a lot of sense. I have a feeling it doesn't have the staying power of Borat or Bruno but is better than the Ali G movie.
Roger Ebert compared the movie to Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers, and that's an apt correlation. It's definitely better to watch and laugh, rather than try to analyze and deconstruct. Like a sitcom, the script provides situations for Cohen to make us laugh. Those situations are often vulgar, racist, offensive, and completely disgusting. He is still able to push boundaries of bad taste and have it be funny. Like the Marx Brothers, his actions don't have to make sense. They are cartoonish and implausibly over the top, all the time.
Because of that, it's probably better that this film doesn't appear to be a documentary like his previous works. Those films have a very sharp satirical edge to them that would unfilmable and impossible to stage if Cohen attempted to play a real dictator at the United Nations (duh). I'll have to reflect on this movie more to see if it sticks me with past tomorrow. I think it was mostly a bunch of laughs without much substance though. Should you see it? You should if you like Cohen. But go in with low expectations.
Sacha Baron Cohen is an extremely funny and talented performer. He may be the funniest working movie star out there today. The Dictator isn't his best work. It has a lot of really, really funny moments and Steve and I expelled more than our fair share of guffaws, but at its core it's not much of a screenplay and doesn't make a lot of sense. I have a feeling it doesn't have the staying power of Borat or Bruno but is better than the Ali G movie.
Roger Ebert compared the movie to Duck Soup by the Marx Brothers, and that's an apt correlation. It's definitely better to watch and laugh, rather than try to analyze and deconstruct. Like a sitcom, the script provides situations for Cohen to make us laugh. Those situations are often vulgar, racist, offensive, and completely disgusting. He is still able to push boundaries of bad taste and have it be funny. Like the Marx Brothers, his actions don't have to make sense. They are cartoonish and implausibly over the top, all the time.
Because of that, it's probably better that this film doesn't appear to be a documentary like his previous works. Those films have a very sharp satirical edge to them that would unfilmable and impossible to stage if Cohen attempted to play a real dictator at the United Nations (duh). I'll have to reflect on this movie more to see if it sticks me with past tomorrow. I think it was mostly a bunch of laughs without much substance though. Should you see it? You should if you like Cohen. But go in with low expectations.