Trailer: The Dictator

The Dictator

Release Date: May 11, 2012
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, John C. Reilly, Megan Fox, and Sir Ben Kingsley

The Dictator trailer isn’t exactly surprising. Cohen is a shock satirist, and this one looks to deliver more of the same with another pseudo-mockumentary. This one, like Borat and Bruno, features Cohen’s usual brand of off the cuff controversy, but also an elephant parade (now on my bucket list) and allusions to a world where Megan Fox will do anything for money (not on my bucket list, and also, already proven true by Jonah Hex).

I won’t say that Cohen’s familiar brand of humor will fail; how could it? This is America, (apparent) birthplace of AIDS and reality TV that finds 87 ways to tell the same story and 87 ways to scratch at my soul.

Originality is a deadish word made almost pulseless by the repetitive nature of all things that entertain us, so, really, Sacha Baron Cohen gets a free pass, because once not too long ago, he came up with an original way to make some people laugh and some people scream. So what if he decides to stop there and rest on his laurels? We’ve let Woody Allen get away with it (and other things) for decades.

Written by Jason Tabrys (@jtabrys)

The former editor-in-chief, Jason still reappears in the rafters of our fair site from time to time but he now spends his days leaping from one place to another, trying to put right what once went wrong. You can still find his words across the toxic constellation that is the… More »