The Dictator
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: May 16, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
16
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
MovielineStephanie ZacharekMay 15, 2012
The Dictator, for all its liberal leanings, doesn't let anyone off the hook, not even well-intentioned liberals. Cohen comes right out and says things that most of us, in polite conversation, wouldn't dare. He knows it's the impolite conversation that really gets things moving. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasMay 14, 2012
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 full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnMay 14, 2012
Transitioning back into a scripted dynamic after his quasi-documentary performance excursions with "Bruno" and "Borat," Baron Cohen loses none of his edge, combining slapstick inspiration and social commentary into a hilariously provocative blend. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanMay 15, 2012
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 full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichMay 14, 2012
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 full review
80
TimeRichard CorlissMay 11, 2012
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--just going denser, wilder, better. He pulls it off. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineNick SchagerMay 11, 2012
A superb vehicle for Sacha Baron Cohen's over-the-top socio-political outrageousness. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 11, 2012
Cohen employs a comic range that ricochets between wicked political barbs and the lowest anatomical farce, to often funny and occasionally hilarious effect. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 11, 2012
The Dictator isn't going to win awards and it isn't as hip as Borat. Big goofy outrageous laughs is what it has to offer. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 16, 2012
If Baron Cohen is going to continue making scripted comedies, he needs to work with directors far less slapdash than Larry Charles. He can be one of the funniest people on the planet, but he needs a real dictator – I mean, director – calling the shots. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 16, 2012
Mixes its high and low comedy with surprising success. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliMay 15, 2012
The Dictator's over-the-top rant against the rank lunacy of authoritarianism deploys comedy like an act of violence; it's outrageous, quick and leaves us breathless, whether from laughter or shock. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 15, 2012
Too short and undisciplined to be a world-class comedy, but its chutzpah deserves respect. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertMay 11, 2012
The Dictator is funny, in addition to being obscene, disgusting, scatological, vulgar, crude and so on. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 16, 2012
The good news is that The Dictator is a loose and silly and occasionally exhilarating political farce in the tradition of Chaplin's The Great Dictator (obviously) and the Marx Brothers' antiwar masterpiece "Duck Soup." And it comes in at a fleet 83 minutes - just right. Read full review
70
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 16, 2012
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 full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 15, 2012
Even the smuttiest jokes about rape, torture and genitals have a more polished edge, sliding by without causing much offense. Watching actors portray alarm at Cohen's antics isn't as hilarious as civilians doing it for real. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 16, 2012
The Dictator leaves you laughing helplessly. It starts at outrageous and rockets on from there. Screw the occasional sputter. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickMay 16, 2012
As for Baron Cohen, he's a great comic but his acting can still use work - most of his funniest lines appear to have been dubbed over other actors' reaction shots in post-production. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigMay 15, 2012
After laughing at crudely funny scenes in The Dictator, there's a cringing sensation of guilt. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 11, 2012
Cohen at his best is both brazen and sly. As is The Dictator. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyMay 15, 2012
By turns hysterical, heretical, guilty, innocent, silly, sophisticated, teasing and tedious. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramMay 11, 2012
Outrageous, outlandish and overboard, The Dictator will satisfy Cohen's army of fans. But it never feels as funny, full-on or fresh as "Borat" and "Brüno." Read full review
60
EmpireDamon WiseMay 11, 2012
Formulaic, yet scrappy, and extremely funny in fits and starts, General Aladeen is the first of Cohen comic creations to get a better vehicle than it probably deserves. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter DebrugeMay 11, 2012
Typically, political correctness couldn't be farther from the filmmakers' mind, and yet, what the picture most sorely lacks is the sort of humanist appeal Chaplin delivered at the close of "The Great Dictator." Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMay 15, 2012
The Dictator has a few laughs along its bumpy path, but not enough of them to indicate that Cohen has found a means to escape the shadows of his early career and forge a second act for himself. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenMay 16, 2012
A climactic speech on the lessons Western democracy might learn from Middle Eastern despotism offers a few moments of pure brilliance. I'd say that speech is worth the price of admission if it didn't also illustrate exactly what the film is missing: barbs that aim for the comedic bull's-eye. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaMay 16, 2012
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 full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthMay 15, 2012
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 full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 15, 2012
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 full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisMay 14, 2012
You're left with an inert, politically neutral movie, a satire that can't bring itself to properly satirize anything. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyMay 11, 2012
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 full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumMay 15, 2012
What's shocking this time is how tame Sacha Baron Cohen's newest wild man is, for all the kerfuffle the comedian can stir up on the ­promotional trail. Read full review
40
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMay 26, 2012
The Dictator, like its predecessors, is short (eighty-three minutes), but it runs down fast, and the lewd jokes pile up. [28 May 2012, p. 76]
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 17, 2012
Sacha Baron Cohen's tosses off some sensationally funny stuff before descending into a rat-a-tat rhythm of random insult and ritual vulgarity. Read full review
40
SlateDana StevensMay 17, 2012
The conventional meet-cute love story at the center of The Dictator feels like a bizarre concession to some nonexistent demographic that prefers its sick black comedy with a side of humanist sentiment. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 15, 2012
That potential is mostly squandered in The Dictator, which gestures halfheartedly toward topicality and, with equal lack of conviction, toward pure, anarchic silliness. Read full review
38
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 14, 2012
The latest collaboration between Cohen and director Larry Charles proves the formula they created with "Borat" and then started to milk dry with "Brüno" has finally run out of juice. Time to move on, guys. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineR. Kurt OsenlundMay 12, 2012
Its dolly- and crane-operated polish points toward an acquiescence to Tinseltown mores, which until now Baron Cohen hovered cheekily above. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesMay 15, 2012
Cohen probably thinks he's Charlie Chaplin lampooning Hitler, but of course Hitler was still on top of the world when "The Great Dictator" came out in 1940; Cohen is actually Chaplin's antithesis, a first-world bully content to target the Other. Read full review
25
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 14, 2012
Even amid the hit-and-miss broadsides and laugh-free longueurs that comprise most of The Dictator, Cohen's acute hypocrisy-detector keeps on ticking, if barely. Read full review
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