The Dictator (Larry Charles, 2012)

The good call The Dictator makes is to give up on the device of Sacha Baron Cohen's faux-naif persona, duping members of the public, which was clearly running out of mileage even before Brüno. So one hand hand we do get a more standard comedy. On the other, the plot arc is exactly the same as before, with the title character arriving in America, ending up on the skids and then working to an epiphany of sorts. The problem here is two-fold: the deposed Third World despot is just not that funny a character, with the innate warmth of Baron Cohen's first few creations replaced by tasteless callousness and swearing, and there isn't nearly enough satire considering the wealth of real-world sociopathic buffoons that there is to draw from. A sprinkling of bon mots does not generate enough mirth to elevate the film to satisfying entertainment.

4/10