The Dictator (2012) - ★★★

Director: Larry Charles
Writers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer
Stars: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, John C. Reilly, Jason Mantzoukas (and guest starring Megan Fox and Edward Norton).

I liked The Dictator. It was funny, its style was different to Borat and Bruno, and I liked the comparison between a dictatorship and democracy in the US that was made at the end of the film. However, I was also disappointed in the half-assed jokes that were used throughout. Some albeit were funny, while others felt like they belonged on Family Guy.

Sacha Baron Cohen returns to the screen as Aladeen, Dictator of a fictional country called Wadiya. He enjoys sentencing people to be executed, winning rigged games and oppressing his people. Many assassination attempts have been made on him, which is why he has a double (who is trained to get shot in the head). Aladeen is also building a nuclear weapon, which the United Nations aren't happy about. They threatened to NATO him unless he agrees to cease the production at a conference held in the US. The rightful air to Wadiya, Tamir (Ben Kingsley), desires money, power and above all to move next to George Clooney's house, thus he hires a man (John C. Reilly) to assassinate Aladeen so that his lookalike double can agree to cease making nuclear weapons, turn Wadiya into a democracy and give other countries the rights to mine the land for oil. In return, Tamir gets 30 million dollars. When the assassination attempt gets botched, Aladeen is left in the US without his beard (or identity), which leaves him no choice but to take up the hospitality of Zoey (Anna Faris). Aladeen must hatch a scheme that will get him to the conference and stop Tamir's plan.

What I liked about this film is that it's different to the reality TV style of Borat and Bruno. It's an actual movie with a decent story, which was refreshing because had The Dictator been like the previous two films, it would feel old and done to death. The start of the film was boring, providing little laughs. The comedy really began when John C. Reilly popped onto the screen as the assassinator, who believes anything that isn't a white American is A-rab. Anna Faris provided many laughs too as Zoey, who was very similar to the character she's most famous for playing, Cindy from the Scary Movie franchise. Ben Kingsley was funny simply because he is such a class actor, making his appearance in a movie like this is funny in itself.

The film went for 83 minutes, which is extremely short. I liked this because anything extra would make the film feel bloated (because Aladeen is actually extremely irritating). Cohen recycled his Ali G voice for this character, which was disappointing because I couldn't get over how The Dictator looked like Ali G in a costume. I don't really know why he didn't go to more efforts and detail with the appearance of his character. The fake beard just seemed lazy to me (in comparison to the transformation he made for Bruno).

All in all The Dictator was funny. It's just not Cohen at his best. He had to rely on a cast of supporting actors to make this film any good, which luckily it did. I hope he's not losing his touch, because this film looks like his skills at creating an entertaining film from start to finish are beginning to fade away.

Religulous (2008) - ★★★

Director: Larry Charles
Stars: Bill Maher

Bill Maher's Religulous was compelling enough to keep me entertained throughout the documentary, but I ended up wondering what the point of making it even was.

No religion was left unscathed in Maher's hilariously funny interviews with people that span from the uneducated Christian's of the South to the man who claims he is the second coming of Jesus. Much of the film is Maher giving his opinion on religion, which I found interesting, however, I was disappointed in the lack of information presented from the pro-religion side.

Much of the interviews were from, excuse my bluntness, idiots. It could have been so much better had Maher interviewed more authorities on the subject. I understand that he is blacklisted from many religious foundations across the world, but interviewing ignorant and clueless strangers just didn't add up to make a great documentary.

There wasn't much of a point made. Obviously Maher wants to prove that religion is silly and inhibits the progression of mankind, but that just doesn't come across in this film, which is the fatal flaw of it all. I was expecting cut-throat facts and evidence from his part, but all he gave was peoples opinions on the subject, which disappointed me deeply. I will however mention one scene that had me laughing for a while. Maher interviews a man that 'used to be' gay, and when they hugged at the end the theme to Brokeback Mountain started playing, which I thought was extremely subtle, clever and hilarious.

I admire Bill Maher very much, and I love his viewpoint on religion. This documentary just seemed half-assed and presented nothing new. It was the same old debate from Christians, Jews, Muslims, Mormons alike. Regardless of its unoriginality, this film is entertaining, which is why I give it a thumbs up.