I am a huge fan of the earlier ventures from Sacha Baron Cohen and Larry Charles: Borat and Brüno.  I was disappointed that there wasn't any "real" footage in The Dictator, something the first two films are built upon.  For me the draw was always the clever way they used unwitting people to carry out a predetermined storyline.  The Dictator easily would've fit this mold, (although I'm sure it's harder now that he's so famous).  Had the health food grocery store actually been set in a real city, they could get endless reels of Aladeen treating real customers terribly, and not just a montage of shameless cameos and unknown actors.  It's just a regular 'ol ho hum Hollywood comedy, which is fine, but it's not what I was hoping for.

In my mind Religulous is the third movie in the Larry Charles docu-style movie trilogy.  Whether it was Brüno interviewing a gay converter in the deep south and visiting the Middle East, or Bill Maher doing the very same things, Larry Charles was right there directing.  Even though Religulous is technically a documentary and Borat & Brüno are narrative films, they're really all documentaries, and good ones at that.  It's a shame The Dictator isn't in the same format, but it's still a pretty funny comedy.

3.0 Stars (out of 5)