The problem is that, unlike Ali G, Borat, and Brüno, Aladeen is less a force of nature than a scripted performance. Despite Baron Cohen’s insistence on giving interviews in character, The Dictator—directed, like Borat and Brüno, by Larry Charles—is entirely fictional. Da Baron has given up da shtick.

A.O. Scott calls the film lazy in the New York Times, adding that The Dictator “gestures halfheartedly toward topicality and, with equal lack of conviction, toward pure, anarchic silliness.”

If it’s any consolation, here’s SBC in character, falling off a camel for real at the Cannes Film Festival:

(photo credit: TAL COHEN/AFP/GettyImages)

The post Sacha Baron Cohen’s Latest Film, ‘The Dictator,’ Disappoints Critics appeared first on Jewcy.

• Relatedly, mensch alert: Dustin Hoffman called paramedics after seeing a jogger collapse in Hyde Park.

• At a press conference, Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest character, Admiral General Aladeen, said he put Mel Gibson in charge of the fictional Republic of Wadiya’s Museum of Intolerance.

• Brooklyn Hummus manufacturer Flaum Appetizing will pay $577,000 in back wages to 20 former workers.

• Actor, writer, and radio host Seth Rudetsky, known around here as Moses, the original pushy stage mother, has his own channel, launching this summer:

The post Daily Jewce: Mila and Dustin Save the Day, Hummus Manufacturer Pays Up, and more appeared first on Jewcy.