Dictator
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
For years, the Republic of Wadiya has been ruled by Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen), a childish, tyrannical, sexist, anti-western, and antisemitic despot who surrounds himself with female bodyguards, sponsors al-Qaeda (specially giving shelter to Osama Bin Laden after "they killed his double one year ago") and is working on developing nuclear weapons to attack Israel. He also refused to sell Wadiya's oil fields, a promise he made to his father on his deathbed. After the United Nations Security Council resolves to intervene militarily, Aladeen travels to the UN Headquarters in New York to address the council.
Shortly after arriving, Aladeen is kidnapped by Clayton (John C. Reilly), a hitman hired by his treacherous uncle Tamir (Ben Kingsley), whom Aladeen's father passed over as successor in favor of his son. Tamir then replaces Aladeen with a dimwitted political decoy named Efawadh (Baron Cohen), whom he intends to manipulate into signing a document nominally democratizing Wadiya while opening the country's oil fields to Chinese and other foreign vested interests. Aladeen escapes after Clayton accidentally kills himself in a botched torture attempt; when his corpse is discovered Tamir thinks Aladeen has been killed. However, Aladeen is practically unrecognizable as Clayton shaved off his trademark long beard prior to his death.
Wandering through New York, Aladeen encounters Zoey (Anna Faris), a human rights activist who offers him a job at her socially progressive, alternative lifestyle co-op. Aladeen refuses the offer and encounters "Nuclear" Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), the former chief of Wadiya's nuclear weapons program, whom Aladeen thought he had previously executed over an argument about the warhead's shape. Aladeen follows him to New York's "Little Wadiya" which is populated by refugees from his country, and meets him in Death to Aladeen Restaurant, run by and visited by numerous people whom Aladeen had personally ordered executed. Nadal saves Aladeen from nearly being recognized by angry refugees and reveals that rebels infiltrated the secret police, and all the condemned were sent into exile instead of being executed. Nadal agrees to help Aladeen thwart Tamir's plot and regain his position as 'rightful' dictator, on condition that Aladeen makes him head of Wadiya's WMD program again. Aladeen agrees and accepts Zoey's job offer, as she is catering at the hotel where the signing is to occur. Aladeen grows closer to Zoey after she refuses his sexual advances and teaches him how to masturbate, and eventually falls in love with her after seeing her angry. Turning around Zoey's struggling business, Aladeen begins imposing strict schedules on everyone, forming a personality cult around Zoey and intimidating an inspector into giving the store a good review.
However, Aladeen's relationship with Zoey becomes strained after he decides to be honest with her and reveal his true self; she cannot love a man who was so brutal to his own people. After acquiring a new beard taken from a corpse, Aladeen ziplines into the hotel and tells Efawadh he has recovered (his double being fooled into thinking the Supreme Leader was ill). At the signing ceremony, he tears up Tamir's document in front of the UN delegation, and holds an impassioned speech praising the virtues of dictatorship, drawing unintended parallels to current issues in the US. However, upon seeing Zoey in the room, he declares his love for her and, knowing Zoey's strongly held views, vows to democratize his country and open up Wadiya's oil fields for business, but in a way where the general populace will benefit. Angry with Aladeen staying in power, Tamir attempts to assassinate him but Efawadh jumps in front of the bullet and survives, as it is his job "to be shot in the head". Tamir, afterwards, is arrested.
A year later, Wadiya holds its first democratic elections, although they are rigged in favor of Aladeen (who has now added the titles President Prime Minister to his previous Admiral General). Afterwards, he marries Zoey, but is shocked when she crushes a glass and reveals herself to be Jewish; throughout the film he was shown vowing to "destroy Israel". Scenes during the credits show Aladeen's convoy, now consisting of eco-friendly cars, visiting a reinstated Nadal, and later Zoey revealing in a television interview that she is pregnant with the couple's first child. Aladeen responds to the news by asking if Zoey is having "a boy or an abortion".
=== Unrated version ===
The unrated cut of The Dictator runs an additional 15 minutes from its original 83-minute theatrical version. Much of the added material is additional sexual content and dialogue. There is a scene following Aladeen falling asleep in the back of the store where one of his bodyguards, Etra, tries to kill him by beating him with her enlarged breasts. Another added scene is Mr. Ogden, the manager of the Lancaster Hotel, talking to Zoey at The Collective and canceling the catering contract because of Aladeen.

Review: Senseless movie which has a lot of wasted efforts. This is one of those movies where you would feel like you just wasted your time and energy by watching this. The movie has the same storyline that is getting repeated since ages. None of the actors had the chance of proving their best. Most of them including character artists or even comedians didn't get enough time and script to gain some applause. Of course, it isn't their fault anyways. There are a lot of villains and bad guys but none of them are menacing. Many might not like the concept of a female villain but still Rati is not menacing in any way. One of the main even more wasted efforts is Sonal Chauhan. Even though she gets all the marks for glamor and performance, her character is as if it is just placed so that they can get a song and couple of scenes to tick the glamor quotient. But at least, she does this much better than that of Legend movie. Anjali did best here given that her character has some importance.Coming to technical aspects, production values are average and camera work is OK. Thaman's music is average but would work well with typical mass dances. It seems background music is done by somebody else, but it looks average too and doesn't help the poor screenplay anyways. Finally, the direction is average too. The screenplay and direction neither elevated hero level scenes nor they worked with villains nor they worked with comedians and other actors. Dialogues by Ratnam are as good as that of Legend's but these days I'm not sure why there should be a lot of misplaced and unnecessary build up dialogs for most of the movies.The only saving grace in the movie is, NBK who often does his best. He tried pretty hard to dance well but it isn't his fault with choreography. He looked good and did his best. Apart from him, Anjali gave her best and Sonal too did her best even though her role is negligible.Finally, there is no way I can say this is a must watch even for a casual time pass. Just a wasted effort, but, at least, better than Lion movie.. Balayya Steals the Show #Dictator. Undoubtedly, Balakrishna is the heart and soul of the film. He is exceptionally good in both his characters and carries the entire film on his shoulders. The way Srivas has showcased Balayya as Dictator is pretty impressive and elevates the super star to another level. Be it his costumes, dialogue delivery and dances, Balakrishna does a superb job. Anjali looks beautiful and shares a superb chemistry with Balakrishna. All her scenes during the second half have come out extremely well.Interval bang and the flash back episode in Delhi are decent. Some confrontation scenes between Balakrishna and Rati Agnihotri have been executed well and elevate the film to a decent level. #Lion is back