The Dictator 2012

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Cohen and Charles offer a lot of admittedly witty observations, but they don't build into anything bigger or smarter. They're too broad. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Baron Cohen balances the stupid, outrageous, over-the-top stuff with almost, ahem, radically provocative observations and pronouncements... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Potential is mostly squandered in "The Dictator," which gestures halfheartedly toward topicality and, with equal lack of conviction, toward pure, anarchic silliness. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Now [Cohen is] turning material both fresh and rancid into tepid gruel. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: Terrorism and torture, anti-Semitism and pedophilia, onanism and armpit hair: They're all grist for the comic mill in Sacha Baron Cohen's latest assault on moviegoers' funny bones. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The Dictator keeps the gags coming as fast as it can manage, sometimes in big gross-out setpieces like an impromptu baby delivery, but more often in the general fusillade of hit-or-miss jokes that hit at a better-than-average rate. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: For the most part, the movie's rhythms feel slightly off -- there are long stretches without a laugh -- and there is a mean-spirited air to the whole thing. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Cohen is actually Chaplin's antithesis, a first-world bully content to target the Other. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Cohen at his best is both brazen and sly. As is The Dictator. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: On the laughmeter The Dictator is closer to Borat than to the misfired Bruno, which is to say it's funny for about half of its brisk 83 minutes. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: If nothing here offends you, take a bow on behalf of your stout constitution. If nothing here makes you laugh, you might need to loosen up a tad. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It reasserts Baron Cohen as a comic force who can't be ignored, dedicated to pushing the envelope and working with real ideas. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Baron Cohen's demonstrations of political ''outrageousness'' feel all too canned, planned, and defanged. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Cohen employs a comic range that ricochets between wicked political barbs and the lowest anatomical farce, to often funny and occasionally hilarious effect. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: By turns hysterical, heretical, guilty, innocent, silly, sophisticated, teasing and tedious. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Dictator does for Sacha Baron Cohen what The Love Guru did for Mike Myers. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: [A] hugely offensive, outrageously funny farce. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The film has a vicious edge that the Marx Brothers didn't have, and it's too low-minded to achieve their enchanting blend of anarchy and surrealism. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: For once, Baron Cohen has a real script and a supporting cast as skilled at improv as he is. And those complementary elements make a difference. Read more

David Edelstein, NPR: The Dictator is loose and slap-happy and full of sharp political barbs and has funny actors moving in and out - and at a lickety-split 83 minutes, it doesn't wear out its welcome. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: The easily offended will be appalled. The rarely offended may be appalled. But they'll have to stop laughing long enough to realize it. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: It ends up being a lot less hilarious than "Borat,'' and not quite as funny as "Bruno.'' Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Directed by Cohen's longtime collaborator Larry Charles, The Dictator mixes its high and low comedy with surprising success. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: One of the cleverest moments in Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator comes during the first five seconds: a memorial dedication to Kim Jong Il. It's all downhill from there. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Of course it's offensive and tasteless. That's the point. Sometimes the jokes are excruciatingly funny. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Dictator is funny, in addition to being obscene, disgusting, scatological, vulgar, crude and so on. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The Dictator starts at outrageous and rockets on from there. Screw the occasional sputter. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Although the character of Aladeen seems awfully predictable by Baron Cohen standards, the movie itself veers from one hilarious, absurd and patently offensive setup to the next... Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Clearly, Baron Cohen is a smart, gifted and versatile actor; it's time for him to stretch his abilities and dictate to himself a new kind of challenge. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: This isn't the last word on cinematic send-ups of totalitarianism -- for that, we still have Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator -- but it's a fine and riotous jab in the ribs. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Most of The Dictator had me neither laughing nor shocked, but just staring at the screen in anxious is-that-all-there-is? silence. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Sacha Baron Cohen's third starring feature, and the first to be fully scripted, is sharp as a scimitar in one scene and wobbly in the next, but it's unfailingly audacious. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Dictator" is too short and undisciplined to be a world-class comedy, but its chutzpah deserves respect. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: A bit scattershot and schticky, the film never quite settles into a consistent comic rhythm. Yet for fans of Baron Cohen's work there are plenty of moments of crass hilarity. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: While Baron Cohen's lanky physical slapstick and verbal manglings are funny, the movie begins to feel like one of the later, worn-out Pink Panther movies. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: For all the movie's messiness and lack of conviction, Baron Cohen makes so many of his gags stick to the wall that it's easy to forgive the film's many flaws. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Fans of the nasty Baron Cohen may regret his being borderline nice in The Dictator. But we should welcome his decision to stop being the best at something few others dare try and instead to inhabit a more familiar comedy style. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: If a comedy is meant to make you laugh, mission accomplished. As a series of wonderfully grotesque set-pieces, The Dictator delivers. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Even the stoniest face will crack when Aladeen sums up our cultural moment in a rousing, uproarious climactic speech worthy of both Chaplin and Team America. Read more

Melinda Sue Gordon, Toronto Star: Cohen and Charles deserve kudos for departing from their usual formula of setting Cohen's crazed characters loose in the real world. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: The Dictator isn't as outrageous or screamingly funny as Borat. There are laughter-free stretches. And yet, the character of Admiral General Aladeen of the North African Republic of Wadiya, begins to grow on us. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: While tastelessness is rampant and the humor uneven, The Dictator also has its moments of slyly clever satire. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Typically, political correctness couldn't be farther from the filmmakers' mind, and yet, what the pic most sorely lacks is the sort of humanist appeal Chaplin delivered at the close of The Great Dictator. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Even in its manufactured boundary-pushing-a flash of full-frontal Baron Cohen, another scene set partially inside a birth canal-The Dictator never really risks anything. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Never achieves the stinging parodic heights of Cohen's Borat movie, but manages a better batting average than his most recent misfire, Bruno. Read more