…it had me laughing so hard at times, I was crying!
The Dictator is a movie full of non-stop laughter and off the wall jokes. It’s comedy is both the kind that you miss a joke because you’re still laughing from the last.
The film is directed by Larry Charles who’s résumé lists comedies like Borat, Brüno, and Seinfeld. His work is filled with quick, funny and inappropriate jokes you can’t help laughing at. The movie stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, John C Reilly, and Ben Kingsley.
Welcome to the Republic of Wadiya. It’s located in Northern Africa under the rule of Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen (Baron). He is the dictator who has more money than he can spend, is anti-semantic, anti-western and has a group of specially trained female body guards. Because he doesn’t want to sell his oil internationally and oppresses his entire country to live in fear, the UN has agreed to remove him militarily because of the suspicion he has WMDs. He decides he is to go to the UN council in New York to address them while developing weapons grade plutonium for nuclear missiles.
His uncle and most trusted soldier is Tamir (Kingsley) who was passed over as the rightful leader. When they arrive in New York, Clayton (Reilly) is hired as a bodyguard to keep Aladeen safe while in the US. While he’s sleeping, he is abducted by Clayton to be tortured and loses his signature beard but escapes. Unrecognized and without money, he heads to the UN to try and give his speech but he ends up inciting a riot. He then meets Zoe (Faris) who cares for him but doesn’t know who he is.
I’m sure there are a lot of people that have have found this offensive but I think it sways between offensive and just funny. It feels like a lot of comedies play it safe to not offend too many people. I appreciate that Baron doesn’t sacrifice his sense of humor to gain mass appeal I do wish there was more John C Reilly in the movie but he did well with the screen time he had.
It looks very good in 1080p. There is a wide variety of hues in the different scenes throughout the film. Aside from some of the scenes from the palace, the coloring is never too bright or overwhelming. For example, during the parade scene the Supreme ruler and his entourage’s colors are very brilliant on purpose. However, the otherside of that coin is I feel like some of the tones get lost in each other. The overall picture isn’t that bright to contrast skin tones and the background. Another thing I noticed is that the unrated scenes are branched into the theatrical, making a contrast change noticeable. When this happens, you loose that cohesiveness because on not blending the coloring properly. As far as good, I will say that the picture is super sharp. It has depth and detail that shows the difference between dvd and blu-ray.
The audio is about average for a blu-ray release. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 has a clean sound when the soundtrack is playing. Its composed of popular songs that have been translated into Wadiyan. Also, the majority of the score has these bass-y drums that give the subwoofer some work.
Deleted and extended scenes
Larry King interview
Music Video: Best Love Song – “Your Money’s On The Dresser”
Disc Details
Includes the Blu-ray with both the theatrical and Banned & Unrated version, theatrical DVD, unrated Digital Copy, and UltraViolet Digital Copy
Video Resolution
1080p
Audio and subtitles
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
English,
English SDH
French
Spanish
Portuguese
This movie is hilarious. It falls in that same genius comedy that Baron’s other characters are in. I really enjoyed it and it had me laughing so hard at times, I was crying. I watched the Unrated and banned version which is 30 mins longer than the theatrical version. The release itself has very little supplements or extras but does include the 2 versions of the film, a DVD copy, digital copy and and UltraViolet Digital Copy. As for the blu-ray itself, I was expecting a little more from the picture but the sound was solid. If you like comedies, pick it up for a good laugh.
Great review! This movie was hilarious.