Sacha Baron Cohen does a great acting job in his latest film, "The Dictator." The gags are mostly good and although some are tacky and racist (with a few being crude) it still held my attention on a very rough day for me because it works as a parody of dictatorships. There is little about the plot and the film that I can add to the reviews already posted here; but I can certainly vouch for other reviewers who write that the film is actually pretty good entertainment, a parody and nothing truly offensive even if Sacha Baron Cohen is very daring when it comes to topics for jokes and gags.

The plot is not terribly deep; but it moves along well and you shouldn't get bored. Sacha Baron Cohen (who plays the brutal dictator of the fictional, northern African country named Wadiya) surrounds himself with excellent actors all turning in convincing performances that make the film even funnier. Sir Ben Kingsley plays Tamir, the rightful heir to the dictatorship occupied by his apparently younger brother General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen). Anna Faris is brilliant as Zoey, a Brooklyn, New York vegan small business food store owner who's liberal activism clashes sharply with Aladeen's "take no prisoners" and kill-`em-all policy whenever anyone disagrees with him. Nadal, a scientist ordered to create nuclear weapons for Wadiya, is well played by Jason Mantzoukas; his timing is just right and he supports Baron Cohen really well.

Soon after the film starts with some gags and basic introductions, General Aladeen is practically summoned to the United Nations. They want his assurance that he isn't developing nuclear weapons--otherwise they may use military force against Wadiya. Aladeen travels to New York with Tamir and an extensive entourage--but soon after that he is kidnapped and nearly killed in a very funny scene with one of my favorite actors, John C. Reilly, playing the would-be murderer. Tamir hopes that with the real Aladeen out of the way he can use a phony "double" for Aladeen and use the double to make Wadiya a democracy so Tamir can sell its oil to countries around the world, most notably America and China.

But what Tamir doesn't know is that Aladeen escaped being killed and wants nothing more than to gain back total control of Wadiya. Just how Aladeen and Zoey get to know each other and how Aladeen tries to win back control of his country is how the rest of the film plays out, complete with gags and jokes about anything Baron Cohen wants to tackle, including 9/11, blacks, Jews, Asians and just about anything else you can imagine.

All in all, if you liked Sacha Baron Cohen's other films, I think you will like this one. It is better than "Bruno" and while it isn't quite as good as "Borat" it's definitely funny. It managed to divert my attention on a rather stressful day and that's actually saying a lot. In addition, if you're new to Sacha Baron Cohen's sense of humor and you're not that easily offended, you should enjoy this film.

I'll make this short and sweet, and also mention this is not manipulative attempt to change your view, but in order to enjoy this movie, or anything by Sacha, you have to understand the psychology behind it, you can't be offended by anything, if you are there is personal issues you have to go inside of yourself and face, rather than ignoring them, and you have to have intelligence beyond what you learned in an educational institution. Furthermore, this movie is hilarious, don't listen to the reviews by morons who don't understand what the point of this mans work is, I literally could not go 2 minutes without laughing.

When shouting the Big F in a weird accent isn't really funny. When race, sex, and sadism become simply hard work for the comic. When even pertinent political satire can't elicit more than a sickly smirk. When the outtakes really needed to taken out ... you have The Dictator - Banned and Unrated.

But the joke's on me for not heeding the comments of my twenty-something son's twenty-something friends. This! Is! a Total! Waste Of Time!