I just need to get this part out-of-the-way first…
WELCOME TO WADIYA
A land where everyone is poor except for the SUPREME LEADER. Women have no rights, you have no voice against your government, and you best not be Jewish!
If you are into cheap laughs based solely on jokes being offensive, than this is a movie you will enjoy. Personally, I thought the movie was just aladeen, its stupid fun–and who the hell can really hate on that?
Basically, if you are a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen, you should rent the movie. I don’t think it’s worth the price of a DVD, but definitely worth a rental if you have 81 minutes to kill, and don’t feel like actually thinking.
For fans of: Borat, and Bruno
Plot overview – SPOILERS BITCHES!
Straight out of the gate, the film attempts to offend you with an “In Loving Memory of Kim Jong Il” dedication. (OH NO YOU DIDN’T!) Not going to lie to you, I laughed. Like I said before, it’s stupid fun.
Things you need to know -
Where does the movie take place? North African Republic of Wadiya as well as New York City
Who is The Dictator? Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen): the selfish, ignorant, misogynistic, anti-western, and antisemitic Supreme Leader of Wadiya
How does he end up in America? Nuclear Weapons, the pointy kind of nuclear weapons.
The entire movie is hinged on the fact that the rest of the world wants to know if Wadiya and the Admiral General are making Weapons of Mass Destruction. This prompts the UN to force Aladeen into coming to America to speak with the United Nations on the topic.
They are, he is, and no doubt about that. One of the more aladeen scenes is where the scientists of Wadiya are reminding the Supreme leader that he had the head of nuclear research Nuclear Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas) killed over an argument about the bomb’s shape.
John C Reilly shows up, accuses every one of being an “A-rab”, and later abducts Aladeen (because he is a hired hitman) and attempts to torture him. The torture/murder of Aladeen doesn’t go very well (Aladeen isn’t shy about letting his captor know) and he just ends up escaping, sadly after his iconic beard is removed. Without his beard, Aladeen is unrecognizable, and his goat-loving body double (whose only real job was to get shot in the head) takes the place of the Supreme Leader to sign a new constitution of Wadiya officially, making it a democracy.
Sad, beardless, and wandering around New York City, Aladeen spots his supposedly dead Nuclear Nadal working as a Mac Genius. He follows Nadal to the “Death to Aladeen Café” in “Little Wadiya” where he finds out that literally everyone he has ever sentenced to death has been simply sent to America, and he in fact, has not killed anyone.
Aladeen enlists the help of his former nuclear expert to help him re-gain power, and stop the democracy in Wadiya from becoming a reality. Seeking his old job, Nadal Agrees. To do this they need access to The Lancaster hotel where the faux-Aladeen is staying. So Nadal and the real Aladeen decide that Aladeen will get a job working for the “Vegan, Feminist, co-op for all or no genders,” that will be catering the event. You know they are progressive because they have a “lesbian bathroom”
During his tenure at the Co-op, Aladeen falls in love with Zoey (Anna Faris) after calling her “Justin Beiber’s Chubby Double,” and making several jokes about her un-shaved armpits. He turns her business around by using his dictator know-how, and she teaches him how to jerk it totally off. After some time, some racist, sexist, and generally offensive jokes, and a fight scene where Aladeen is literally attacked by the absurdly large death-breasts wielded by a former body-guard, Zoey and Aladeen finally get together. Before getting too intimate, Aladeen comes clean that he is not “Alison Burgers” like she had thought, but is, in fact the Supreme Leader of Wadiya. She gets upset and runs away.
Nadal and Aladeen steal the head of a recently deceased and much beloved black man to steal his beard (to save time), and break Aladeen in to The Lancaster to take back his place as Dictator of Wadiya. He dismisses his double and walks to the table. He rips up the new constitution and is about to declare that Wadiya will always be a dictatorship when he sees Zoey crying. And because everyone gets all soft when girls cry, Aladeen declares that because of what he has learned in America he will convert Wadiya into a “True Democracy.” During the first election we see that he hasn’t changed that much as he forces people to vote for him.
Zoey and Aladeen are married, we find out Zoey is Jewish (oh boy didn’t see that coming) and the movie makes one last offensive joke. When Aladeen finds out that Zoey is pregnant he asks her if she is having “a boy or an abortion.”
What to expect: Jokes about Terrorism, Women, Sex, Masturbation, Jewish people, and perhaps the best part, Popular songs with a middle eastern twist.
Overall, the movie has it’s aladeen parts, and it’s aladeen parts, but most of the movie is relatively aladeen.
