Sacha Baron Cohen tackles a more or less conventionally scripted fish-out-of-water/political satire/romantic comedy/raunchfest in the fitfully amusing “The Dictator.’’ It ends up being a lot less hilarious than “Borat,’’ and not quite as funny as “Bruno.’’
While Baron Cohen’s obviously become too well-known to fool civilians with his gonzo comedy, as he did in the earlier mock documentaries, his acting chops still aren’t the greatest — though he’s improved from his embarrassingly bad performance in “Hugo.’’
If Osama bin Laden were still alive — and he’s lewdly name-checked repeatedly here — even he would be aware that in this heavily promoted comedy, Baron Cohen plays Admiral General Aladeen, who has ruled the oil-rich and fictitious North African nation of Wadiya with a heavy hand after ascending to the throne at age 7.
Combining the least endearing traits of Saddam Hussein, Moammar Khadafy and Kim Jong-il (the film is dedicated to the latter) with a bin Laden-like beard, Aladeen is a megalomaniac who shoots opponents to win his own version of the Olympics.
The funniest scene, in what amounts to a shaky mash-up of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator’’ and Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America,’’ comes early on, when Megan Fox cameos as the latest of the chronically unloved Aladeen’s (paid) celebrity trysts. He posts a Polaroid of her on a wall that includes pictures of Oprah Winfrey and Arnold Schwarzenegger, among many, many others.
Aladeen’s uncle and chief aide, Tamir (a wisely underplaying Ben Kingsley), Wadiya’ s rightful heir, is plotting to replace his nephew with an idiot shepherd who’s been recruited as Aladeen’s body-double (also played by Baron Cohen) for a trip to the United Nations.
But an attempted assassination (at the hands of John C. Reilly, one of many pros whom Cohen struggles to keep up with) gets botched, leaving Aladeen stranded in New York City without his trademark beard, unbeknownst to Uncle Tamir.
Aladeen finds an improbable protector and soulmate in Zoey (an unrecognizable and miscast brunette Anna Faris), the feminist vegetarian manager of a health food store in Brooklyn where our hero goes to work despite his frequent rants about Zoey’s hairy armpits and the joys of totalitarianism.
The dictator encounters his former nuclear-weapons expert (Jason Mantzoukas) and the two begin plotting a way to prevent Tamir from having Aladeen’s double sign a new constitution that would introduce democracy and turn over Wadiya’s oilfields to a Chinese businessman.
As directed by Larry Charles, the results are far more scattershot than his and Baron Cohen’s previous collaborations, especially their masterpiece “Borat.’’
There’s a very funny scene where a couple of tourists mistake some innocent remarks during a helicopter ride for a planned terrorist attack. Having Aladeen deliver a baby in the aisle of the health food store reeks of desperation in a movie that contains far too many stale gay-panic gags.
Aladeen’s final speech at a press conference — suggesting there isn’t much difference between his dictatorship and the United States — feels like a satirical afterthought added at the last minute to pad out the abbreviated running time. At one point in “The Dictator,’’ Aladeen boasts of his acting prowess, which he says has allowed him to dominate Wadiya’s version of the Golden Globes. 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.