The Dictator

2012, Comedy, 1h 23m

225 Reviews 100,000+ Ratings

critics consensus

Wildly uneven but consistently provocative, The Dictator is a decent entry in the poli-slapstick comedy genre. Read critic reviews

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The Dictator Videos

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Vegan Jihad photo 1

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Vegan Jihad

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Aladeen Law photo 2

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Aladeen Law

The Dictator: Official Clip - Nuclear Nadal photo 3

The Dictator: Official Clip - Nuclear Nadal

The Dictator: Official Clip - Death to Aladeen photo 4

The Dictator: Official Clip - Death to Aladeen

The Dictator: Official Clip - Delivering Love photo 5

The Dictator: Official Clip - Delivering Love

The Dictator: Official Clip - Seducing Megan Fox photo 6

The Dictator: Official Clip - Seducing Megan Fox

The Dictator: Official Clip - You're Making a Fool out of Me! photo 7

The Dictator: Official Clip - You're Making a Fool out of Me!

The Dictator: Official Clip - You Need to Touch Yourself photo 8

The Dictator: Official Clip - You Need to Touch Yourself

The Dictator: Official Clip - A Snag on the Zipline photo 9

The Dictator: Official Clip - A Snag on the Zipline

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Helicopter photo 10

The Dictator: Official Clip - The Helicopter

View all videos

The Dictator Photos

Ben Kingsley as Tamir in "The Dictator." photo 1

Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 2

Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen and Anna Faris as Zoey in "The Dictator." photo 3

A scene from "The Dictator." photo 4

Sacha Baron Cohen (center) as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 5

Anna Faris as Zoey and Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 6

A scene from "The Dictator." photo 7

Anna Faris as Zoey and Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 8

Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 9

(L-R) Ben Kingsley as Tamir and Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 10

Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 11

A scene from "The Dictator." photo 12

(L-R) Jason Mantzoukas as Nadal and Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 13

(L-R) Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen and Ben Kingsley as Tamir in "The Dictator." photo 14

(L-R) Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen and Ben Kingsley as Tamir in "The Dictator." photo 15

A scene from "The Dictator." photo 16

Sacha Baron Cohen (center) as General Aladeen in "The Dictator." photo 17

(L-R) Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen as General Aladeen and John C. Reilly in "The Dictator." photo 18

A scene from "The Dictator." photo 19

Anna Faris as Zoey in "The Dictator." photo 20

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Movie Info

Gen. Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen) has ruled the oil-rich North African country of Wadiya since the age of six, when 97 stray bullets and a hand grenade killed his father in a hunting accident. After an assassination attempt takes the life of yet another body-double, Tamir (Ben Kingsley), Aladeen's uncle and most trusted adviser, convinces Aladeen to go to New York. Unfortunately, Aladeen has a less-than-friendly reception from exiled Wadiyans, who want their country freed from his despotic rule.

Rating:

R (Language|Brief Male Nudity|Some Violent Images|Strong Crude & Sexual Content)
Genre:

Comedy
Original Language:

English
Director:

Larry Charles
Producer:

Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Anthony Hines, Scott Rudin, Todd Schulman
Writer:

Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer
Release Date (Theaters):

May 16, 2012 wide
Release Date (Streaming):

Aug 21, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA):

$59.6M
Runtime:

1h 23m
Distributor:

Paramount Pictures

Cast & Crew

Sacha Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen
Gen. Aladeen, Efawadh

Anna Faris
Zoey

Ben Kingsley
Tamir

Jason Mantzoukas

Jason Mantzoukas
Nadal

Kevin Corrigan
Slade

Megan Fox
Self

Show all Cast & Crew

News & Interviews for The Dictator

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Critics Consensus: Battleship Is All Wet

Critic Reviews for The Dictator

All Critics (225) | Top Critics (65) | Fresh (127) | Rotten (98)

Full Review… Deborah Ross The Spectator

Full Review… J. Hoberman Tablet

Full Review… Jenny McCartney Daily Telegraph (UK)

Full Review… David Denby New Yorker

Full Review… Donald Clarke Irish Times

Full Review… Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal

Full Review… Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review

Full Review… James Croot Stuff.co.nz

Full Review… Owen Nicholls NME

Full Review… Mike Massie Gone With The Twins

Full Review… Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com

Full Review… Mattie Lucas The Dispatch (Lexington, NC)

View All Critic Reviews (225)

Audience Reviews for The Dictator

Aug 19, 2015

Niaiseux Ã fond, mais drÃ´le. trÃ¨s divertissant.

Super Reviewer
Oct 05, 2013

"Why are you guys so anti-dictatorship? Imagine if America was a dicatatorship! You could let 1% of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health-care and education. Your media would appear free; but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wire-tape phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests. I knew this is hard for you Americans to imagine, but please: try!" Political "satires" about dictators seem to end with a memorable speech. Even if Sacha went unscripted and went full-throttle against the American "dream" and the illusionary concept of democracy in modernity, the entire formula falls into sixth grade humor and significantly disturbing pacing issues. So what pushed the rating up? The final speech all right. Whenever America (America means the U.S., right? Haha, like if U.S. now represented an entire continent's name) is called the birth place of AIDS and the perfect illustration of dictatorship, I'm sorry, but my rating will be pushed up. That speech magically fixed like so many flaws in a rather atrocious film. 51/100

Super Reviewer
Aug 20, 2013

Unwatchable. And I love Sacha movies.

Super Reviewer
Aug 09, 2013

Sacha Baron Cohen really tries to extend the shock factor to create comedy, but the method has worked thin and has made me lose interest in his next project.

Super Reviewer

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