A 2012 movie starring Sacha Baron Cohen doing what he does best - pretending to be a guy from another country (this time ethnically non-specific) who makes fun of other people's ignorance regarding ethnic stereotypes.In this film Sacha plays Admiral General Shabazz Aladeen of the Republic of Wadiya, a fictional country in North Africa. Aladeen is pretty much the worst head of state this side of Pol Pot (in a funny way of course) but to him it's just everyday life. However when he's invited to give a speech at the United Nations in New York, his Treacherous Advisor Tamir (Ben Kingsley) arranges to have him kidnapped and murdered. Though Aladeen escapes, his captor shaved off his iconic beard, making him unrecognizable.Now penniless and without status, Aladeen finds himself picked up by Zoey (Anna Faris), a kindly grocery store manager who offers him a job. Hilarity Ensues as Aladeen tries to find a way back to his throne, prevent a 'democratic' constitution being signed by a body double (part of Tamir's plans to sell Wadiya's oil to the highest bidder), and build weapons of mass destruction, all at once.Not to be confused with the Charlie Chaplin film The Great Dictator.
Arab Oil Sheikh: Aladeen, although not an Arab (or so he claims) and not actual sheikh, is really ostentatious in his displays of wealth and has the requisite Middle Eastern flavour.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: When Aladeen and Nadal take their helicopter ride, they're speaking Hebrew, not "Wadiyan". Possibly a Stealth Pun, since Aladeen is virulently anti-Semetic.
Asshole Victim: The racist xenophobe who kidnaps, and tries (and fails) to torture and murder Shabazz and gets burned to best.
The Bad Guy Wins: Aladeen defeats his uncle for betraying him, but the ending falls under this trope on account of Aladeen being a Villain Protagonist who never undergoes a complete Heel Face Turn, and instead continues oppressing his country afterwards. It's notable that his main opponent was also evil though, as he was simply trying to sell the country to the highest bidders for its oil resources. The real sufferers in this case are the Wadiyan people.
Babies Ever After: Zoey is revealed to be pregnant during the credits. Subverted in that Aladeen makes it clear he will kill the child if it turns out to be a girl.
Boobs of Steel: The "virgin guard" with the enormous Gag Boobs, Etra, is also the most physically aggressive of all the guards, and the only one depicted engaging in violence...using said gag boobs as weapons (in a scene from the unrated extended addition).
The Comically Serious: Tamir. While everyone else is hamming it up, Ben Kingsley maintains a dignified facade throughout all the silly events happening around him.
Crapsack World: Wadiya is so worthless, that the European colonial powers all played hot potato with one another for the ownership of the country, since no one wanted it. First the Italians claimed it, but they then they sold it to the Swiss for a truckload of cheese, who then paid Germany to take it. Germany then had to convince the people of Wadiya that they wanted independence.
Played straight by the aforementioned racist assassin who tries to kill Aladeen.
Averted by Aladeen himself, who spends the greater part of the movie making various racist and politically incorrect remarks, but never really gets punished for it.
The Ditz: Aladeen and Zoey both come across as pretty flaky but they are far more on the ball than Aladeen's moronic double.
Eagleland: Aladeen makes no secret out of his disdain for the USA.
Ah, America, the birthplace of AIDS!
Evil Versus Evil: A ruthless egomaniac dictator versus a corrupt Treacherous Advisor who wants to sell off his country to oil tycoons. Whichever of them won, the people of Wadiya would still suffer.
Gag Boobs: Aladeen's guard Etra. She smashes a stack of bricks with them, and in a scene from the extended unrated edition, attacks Aladeen himself with them.
Granola Girl: Zoey, who manages a completely democratic health food store which is hyper eco friendly and takes in political refugees as workers.
Heel Face Turn:Zigzagged towards the end, with Aladeen going back and forth between deciding to introduce democracy and remaining as a dictatorship. Ultimately subverted as Aladeen decides to introduce "real democracy" to his country, but they just turn out to be show elections.
Hidden Depths: For all of Aladeen's many, many faults, he's actually an incredibly efficient manager. This is evidenced when he forcibly takes control of Zoey's store. After a couple of days, he's got the right employees doing the right job, has the store looking nice and generally running smoothly. Albeit by employing some questionable methods, including kidnapping and extortion!
Of course, he eventually becomes the Jerk with a Heart of Gold due to being somewhat humbled by his experience, but not by much. He thinks he has become this, at least. Nadal knows better.
Lighter and Softer: Compared to Borat and Bruno. While those two films were R-rated (and very hard R's, at that), this one seems to play it on the safe side and with a few trims could have easily been a PG-13 (which was the studio's original plan).
Line-of-Sight Name: Aladeen seems almost incapable of coming up with an alias any other way. It works the first time with "Allison Burgers," but it leads to obviously fake names like "Ladis Washerum" and "Emploice Muswashans" that don't fool anybody.
Love Redeems: Aladeen's feelings for Zoey help him become a (slightly) better person.
MadScientist: Nadal agrees to help Aladeen regain power so he can continue working on nuclear weapons, instead of his lame job in America.
Make It Look Like An Accident: Shabazz seized power from his father after murdering him in a "hunting accident". Though he apparently did a really shitty job of making it look like an accident.
Biography: When Aladeen was just a child, his father Omar died in a tragic hunting accident when he was hit by 97 stray bullets and a stray grenade. Shortly afterwards, Omar's Chief Advisor suggested that Aladeen should be officially declared the successor. The supremely-humble Aladeen responded by accepting the position.
Method Acting: Sacha Baron Cohen appeared at the Oscars as General Aladeen and has done many interviews as him.
Mistaken for Terrorist: This happens to Aladeen and Nadal when they are on the helicopter. The American tourists think that Aladeen is in league with Bin Laden; in reality, he's just letting Bin Laden crash at his guest house.
People's Republic of Tyranny: The Republic of Wadiya does not have an overly long name, but it deserves a mention for just now blatantly undemocratic it is. From the official site:
Aladeen righteously declared his father Eternal President of the Republic and called for free elections to determine who would serve as Vice-President under his dead father. Aladeen won with only 99.999% of the vote. After an exhaustive government investigation, it was discovered that the one dissenting vote came from Aladeen himself, who deliberately misspelled his own name as an ingenious test of the system.
Pointy-Haired Boss: Zoey. While she's a Benevolent Boss she's allowed such blunders as letting an African refugee from a tribe with no concept of money man the registers, a Peruvian woman whose hands have been replaced with hooked prosthetics do inventory, and is oblivious about one of her employees skimming from the till. Worst of all is probably hiring Aladeen, though it turns out his totalitarian "Supreme Grocer" managing style worked wonders.
Self-Made Orphan: Aladeen almost certainly killed off his dad in addition to all of his brothers.
Smurfing: Aladeen has ordered that a great number of words in the Wadyian language be replaced with "Aladeen". Including contradictory terms like "positive/negative" which causes a lot of confusion.
Physician: I have got news. Do you want the Aladeen news or the Aladeen news first?
Man: Um.... the Aladeen news.
Physician: The test came back. You are HIV Aladeen.
Man switches through happy and sad facial expressions multiple times.
Crosses over with Unusual Euphemism with regard to why Katy Perry got a diamond watch, unlike Megan Fox.
Take That: A BIG one at the US, when Aladeen states everything that a tyrant state does, which at the same time is what the US has been doing, leading, to Aladeen to say this at the end.
"But you wouldn't know anything about that!"
Torture Technician: Aladeen's kidnapper tries to be this, but Aladeen, himself a Torture Technician, mocks and degrades his apparently outdated tool set, ruining the fun for his captor.
You Have Failed Me: Aladeen is known for having people executed for extremely petty reasons. Subverted in that the executioner is part of La Résistance, so everyone he has sentenced to death escaped and formed a resistance movement against him in New York.
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