You know, I actually kind of like Sacha Baron Cohen. He's a great physical comedian and character actor. I've enjoyed his serious acting attempts (HUGO and SWEENEY TODD), and when BORAT was released, I saw it opening night with a bunch of friends, and I remember leaving the theatre with my stomach hurting from laughing so much. Sure it was crude, but it was also such a smart and kind of daring movie.
Now I wasn't as much of a fan of BRUNO. In fact, there were some plot points that the movie could have expanded upon. For example, how does Bruno run into the Westboro Baptist Church crazy people and only spend 2 minutes with them? That was a comedy/social commentary gold mine. But I digress....
Cohen's newest endeavor, THE DICTATOR, is inspired by the novel Zabibah and the King by former Iraqi leader, Sadam Hussein. The film will "tell the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed."
Check the trailer after the break.
So, it's interesting that director Larry Charles, who previously directed Cohen in BORAT and BRUNO, decided to take a "realistic" approach to the story rather than a "mockumentary" approach. The mockumentary aspects what made his previous films work by taking an extreme character and putting him in normal, everyday situations and filming the reactions of the people. I was willing to give this movie a shot because of Ben Kingsley, but then Megan Fox showed up in the trailer. And now I'm done. Cohen and Charles seem to have lost their magic.
THE DICTATOR will be released May 11, 2012 starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Megan Fox, and Anna Faris.
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