With a couple of new movies out this weekend, and more coming out next weekend that I'd like to see I decided to venture out and make a rare Saturday afternoon appearance at the movie theater. To my delight it wasn't as crowded as anticipated, unfortunately for me that meant I still had to sit through The Dictator.

Sacha Baron Cohen makes his return to the big screen in this scripted comedy as Aladeen, a middle eastern dictator who is summoned to the United States to speak to the United Nations amid the controversy of his country becoming a democracy. After running into some problems with his newly hired American security team, Aladeen is quickly replaced by his body double who will try and fool the world and change the leadership and most importantly control of the oil in his country.

Many people are familiar with Cohen's work in Borat and Bruno. Some of that unconventional, usually racist humor makes its way into The Dictator. Unfortunately so does the rest of this script. Despite my relief when the closing credits began to roll, I was shocked to find out that many of the people behind this film also were some of the head writers on the greatest TV show of all time, Seinfeld.

Director Larry Charles and co-writer/producer Alec Berg have been a major part of the creative teams behind all three of Cohen's main films. They were also a major part of the creative process behind the first five seasons of Seinfeld, and later helped out on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

The Dictator is a waste of your money, and a waste of one my free movie tickets I had scored from work. Someone may need to check Sacha Baron Cohen's bank account and make sure to warn America the next time it is low and he puts out another movie. There is a reason that the trailer for this movie looks funny. They took all of the good parts and cut it down to two minutes. Sadly that leaves the remaining 81 minutes. My advice, eat your popcorn slowly to try and keep yourself entertained throughout the movie, also drink your diet soda quickly so you have to get up and use the restroom. It will help make the time move faster.

The Dictator
Directed by: Larry Charles
Written by: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris and Ben Kingsley
My Rating: 1.25 out of 5
Would Gene Pick it?: No