Laughs are few and far between, which comes as a surprise given how Borat and Brüno managed to be two of the most riotously funny movies you’ll ever see.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 19, 2022

Overall The Dictator lacks the wit, invention and spontaneity of Baron Cohen's earlier work...

| Feb 7, 2022

The over saturation of marketing stunts certainly didn't help the appeal but politically and comedically you'll find more to think about and laugh at during a single half hour on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.

| May 13, 2021

It employs a screenplay so flummoxing that it's tricky to put derision into words.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 1, 2020

Far less spontaneous than the Sacha Baron Cohen we've come to expect.

| Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Sep 6, 2020

Proves that there's just enough gas left in the tank for one more outlandish outing.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 8, 2019

The gags are all over the map after that, a hodgepodge of humor that can't decide whether it wants to be mean-spirited satire or play it safe for a mass audience. The result is Cohen's weakest film to date.

| Apr 12, 2019

Assuming you're not easily offended, The Dictator is laugh-out-loud comedy at its best.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2019

It might seem that here, Baron Cohen is doing nothing but poking fun at a couple of dead dictators. But their spirit is alive and well across the Middle East. And his satire can hit home.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 3, 2019

You know what you're getting into with Sacha Baron Cohen, and you either find it funny or you don't.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 9, 2018

I think I can feel it disappearing from my mind even as I am trying to remember it... It's Baron Cohen going at 50mph rather than 100mph.

| Sep 1, 2018

Somehow the movie, while still making sure to offend any given demographic, rights itself by becoming of all things, a romantic comedy cum political satire.

| Aug 30, 2018

The most offensive thing about this film is that it completely lacks a sense of humour.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 28, 2017

The problem is that, unlike Ali G, Borat, and Brno, Aladeen is less a force of nature than a scripted performance.

| May 3, 2016

Feels more like one of those lousy SNL movies from the early nineties than the work of our sharpest contemporary satirist.

Full Review | May 3, 2015

This comedy succeeds as a crude, inventive and humours look at a dumb despot.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 30, 2013

This is not a character who can hold the center of a movie for 90 minutes.

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 23, 2013

A mix of gimme jokes and fish-out-of-water observations about a foreigner's introduction to New York City that were rendered clichd by 'Crocodile Dundee.'

| Original Score: C | Jun 2, 2013

Underrated comic excellence from Sacha Baron Cohen with plenty of sharp satire lacing the broader gross-out gags.

| Mar 4, 2013

Consistently offensive, and not in a way that should automatically be dismissed as 'edgy' or 'provocative'.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 4, 2013